


What's It Like?

by Crocochoo



Series: What's It Like Universe [1]
Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Always-a-lady!Bilbo, Dirty Talk, Dubious Consent, F/M, Friendship, Genderswap, Kink Meme, Manner-centric Bilbo, Mild Gore, Multi, Quest, Sibling Incest, Slow Build, Synesthesia, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Torture, Voice Kink, dominance play
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-11-29 10:31:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 47
Words: 198,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crocochoo/pseuds/Crocochoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fem!Bilbo has synesthesia. Sounds are like touches for her. She learnt to live with it... and then Gandalf invited her on an adventure in the company of dwarves. Their voices torture her, especially the majestic voices of the Durin line, which inflames her to no end.</p><p>Originally written for The Hobbit Kink Meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Life with the Ear Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Written originally for the Hobbit Kink Meme:  
> http://hobbit-kink.livejournal.com/3393.html?thread=5818689#t5818689
> 
> This is a posting of the fill here with some slight edits.
> 
> As much as I tried to keep to the prompt, I ended up failing horribly because I have a habit of making things complicated. From the first chapter, I let this story take off into this mad little world... 
> 
> So, for anyone who originally just wanted Thorin/Bilbo, I do apologize as I accidentally let the characters do as they pleased.
> 
> I also need to thank Ladyoftheval5, who originally made the off hand remark that turned this fic into a study of relationships and all their complexities. I cannot thank them enough for practically being my muse on more than occasion. 
> 
> Warning: SLOW build and slow pacing in general.

I was only a little faunt when I learned that my world was not like the world that other Hobbits lived in. All my life I had been living in a kind of dream, sensations of various kinds constantly flowing around me like a soft breeze. 

Ever present and yet not altogether distracting when soft, I remember the days when I would lie on the grass and listen to the various sounds of the farmer's harvesting their crop, their voices calling their children about like a soft whisper of wind against my cheeks.

I listened to my Mum while she gardened nearby, her hands busy pulling at weeds and collecting tomatoes and other vegetables into her basket. She always hummed while she worked and it was beautiful, a playful touch on the soles of my feet that tickled when in her throat and made me giggle when she breathed the words.

She took me to the market often, always eager to chase me under the warm sun until we came to the beginning of the stalls and I had to stop, so overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the loudest area of Hobbiton. She would look at me strangely when I stopped, unsure why I always seemed to hesitate but she hummed as she took my hand and it drowned out everything else, a faint tickle every time I put my foot down. 

We would walk hand in hand to all the stalls, the cacophony of voices rushing along me like presses of fingers in various places. All over it was like someone had wrapped a physical blanket over me, constricting me and distracting me but amongst the crowd, some voices stood out. A callused touch running along my cheek, a friendly poke on the end of my nose, or a tickle along my sides whenever I heard the Gaffer's voice.

Mum found out about my ears being different when one day she and Gaffer Gamgee traded tips on how to make the most flowers grow in one pot, their shared enthusiasm making their voices loud with undisguised joy. What began as a prickle in my feet and a brush on my sides soon grew as they became more animated, unaware of what it was doing to me, and by the time they even got to how to pack the dirt, I couldn't stop laughing! It was unfair how their voices ganged up on me so well!

When she tried to get me to stop laughing, giggling at me to tell her what was so funny, her voice just sharpened my sensation, as it was apt to do when she became happy, and I fell to the ground in fits of laughter. When the Gaffer laughed at the display (because laughter was always so infectious!) the pressure on my sides increased and I had to beg to get them to stop laughing. It was hurting! Mum ended up dragging me off in a playful mess of giggles and skirts flying before she set me down on the grass and asked again what was so funny.

When I told her, she seemed to not understand and I explained to her again how she tickled me and how Gamgee made it worse when he started to laugh. For a long moment she didn't seem to understand before all of a sudden, she reached down and ran a quick finger along the bottom of my foot. Immediately it jerked away and I glared at her softly but she hushed me and smiled simply before she started to laugh; again, I couldn't help but burst out into laughter and clutch at my feet, trying to roll around in a tangle of skirts before I realized she wasn't laughing anymore.

She looked at me then, amazed and bewildered, and for a moment I wondered if she was upset at me but just as quickly as I thought it, she was dragging me close to her again and hugging me. “Tell me more about it. What do other things feel like?”

I told her and we spent hours underneath the sun cataloging what sensations I felt frequently, our hair catching in the summer breeze as she held me. Though she already knew her's from personal experience, she had me tell her again and I explained how it felt when she hummed, when she laughed and when she was sad. 

Mum seemed to be most pleased when I told her that Dad's voice was like a soothing weight on my back, steadying me and making me feel safe.

With a smile that pinched her nose joyfully, she whispered to me, “That's how his voice makes me feel too."

After the death of Mum, much of my life seemed to exist in a state of the normal day to day hustle of activities that happened to all Hobbits. I still felt the sensations of the noisy world but with Mum's death, it all seemed to mute a bit. If it were like a dream before when Mum was around, it was a little like being on the edge of sleep now that she was gone. 

She loved the way my ears worked and with her gone, I felt her absence all the more because of what it left behind. Dad knew about the Ear Touch as Mum would call it eventually but we didn't like to talk about how I never felt her tickle anymore. Every year on her anniversary, I would wake and feel how lonely my feet were because never again would I hear the voice that made it so easy to laugh and smile.

As a child, I was more Took than Baggins but as I grew up, the Baggins side of me became more and more pronounced. With Dad watching over me, I always made sure to look like a proper Baggins of Bag End, ensuring that my tawny colored curly hair was combed into some resemblance of decency, waistcoat buttoned correctly, and my petticoat fluffed before making sure my skirt wasn't caught on it awkwardly. It was important to look like a proper lass, of course!

Dad kept me close as any respectable but nervous father was to do when their little lass started to blossom but we never had the connection that Mum and I shared. Her death seemed to loom over us always, her presence missed all the more because of how he knew her physical joy was lost from us both in more ways than just the obvious. 

To help with such a loss, we became busy. Our lives bustled from one activity to the next, rearranging things in Bag End, reading together, cooking meals together, gardening side by side, and going out to the market among other things, of course. With such a slew of activity, it kept my mind active. So busy and scattered was I that it was hardly a surprise when I realized one day that much of the sensations I previously felt when hearing sounds had become like an afterthought in passing.

My realization was confirmed at the market when walking arm in arm with Dad and noticing that opposed from when I was a constantly poked and prodded faunt, I was left with a vast sensation much like one would think of the wind on a breezy day. It passed against me but was almost unnoticed, unable to place until thought of directly. I could still feel it when hobbits spoke too loudly but as Dad and I busied about, even those were an afterthought, a brush that was easily dismissed. Even Gaffer, who came by just to greet Dad, was a light touch against my sides that I patted away unconsciously before paying for a bushel of apples some few steps away.

Life was simple in the Shire as any Hobbit would want it and it became even simpler after the sensations seemed to lessen. Dad watched me grow up as happily as I could be but when Dad died some years later, everything became even less than that. 

Simple and Hobbit were the words and teachings that kept me intact, kept me from falling apart. Now the only other person who gave me a strong sensation when I heard their voice was gone from my life and his loss was felt just as much as Mum's was. Maybe in some ways, I felt his more?

When Mum died, it was hard but I could still rely on the sensation of Dad's steady pressure between my shoulders, pushing ever on like a stable weight. It was the center of the world. Even when he was slowly dying in bed from sickness, his hoarse but weak breaths were always a steady weight at my side as I watched over him until one day some moment later, it was just gone.

I was a proper lass by then though and I kept myself going and everyone looked at me with pride and respect when they saw how well I was taking things. Whenever they were needed, they would come, they reassured me. I kept their thoughts in mind, of course, though I was always aware of the absence of the pressure on my back and the tickle of my feet. 

When I eventually came to realize that even when Gaffer Gamgee spoke to me quietly and I could barely feel his touch on my sides, I felt tempted to admit that maybe I had imagined it being like a tickle in the first place?

Hobbits were creatures of peace though and I no more than they, so quickly I fell into a routine that brought about the happiness of life ever forth from those sad days. I was hardly ever lonely either, barely able to find any time for myself what with all my cousins coming to visit. 

Boy, did they ever visit aplenty, their voices jostling me about one way or the other as they excitedly babbled about their love lives and their children.

Children, I found rather happily one day had the most pleasant of voices; they would giggle and laugh with hardly a care in the world and their voices would tickle up my back pleasantly and make me smile. I quickly grew to love being around my many nieces and nephews and took care of them eagerly whenever my poor cousins needed a break. How I adored them and their little noises and their confounding messes that had to be cleaned up. It was wonderful though how their voices brought back a rich sense of joy that I realized I had been lacking since the death of my parents.

Though much of my world was still a vague sense of sensation -no more noticed than any other- I lived a good life happily planting new types of flowers in the garden under the advice of the old Gaffer and Mum. I mended my own worn skirts used for gardening, made a few new ones along with some ruffled ones, and drank tea when my eyes hurt from sewing and the sun too bright and glorious to ignore any further.

Happily I went to the market, still sometimes prodded and poked about when no one was near but otherwise left well enough alone, though some may have noticed when my fingers began to bunch my skirt to try and will away the poking sensation that happened. 

I went to the tavern with my cousins after collecting my supply of pipeweed and enjoyed the merriment until exhausted and hobbled off, slightly tipsy but well wished and watched over all the way back to Bag End. I even kept up with my writing and drawing maps as much was my hobby when I was a wee Hobbit lass, eager to keep myself distracted by my pastimes and a good meal when the appropriate time came.

All in all, it was a good life and nothing much ever unexpected happened to me.


	2. Perilous Adventuring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gandalf comes a knocking and Bilbo is just too proper to really say her real thoughts about this whole "adventuring" business.

So imagine my surprise when one day my life suddenly seemed to flip itself upside down? 

It didn't really start any differently than any other day, if I recalled correctly, but when I awoke, I felt a strange sense of something that I just couldn't quite place even as I tried think of what might have been the cause of it! I turned every which way in bed, huffing when I couldn't really get comfortable anymore and decided to just get up and start on breakfast. 

When I got up though and noticed that it was just as early as it always was when I usually woke, I felt confusion over why I still felt such a strange foreboding feeling on this very good morning. Why did it feel so unusual on today of all days? I was a Hobbit and what could feel so unusual in the Shire of all places!?

I tried to ignore the feeling as I got up, changing out of my night clothes and into my regular daytime chemise shift. I stepped into my fluffy petticoat, smoothing it down out of habit rather than anything else and picked out a normal comfortable blouse and threw that on the bed along with a tan colored skirt. I buttoned up the shirt quickly, pulling down my cuffs sharply before tying my skirt into place and turning around to make sure that my bow was straight. Another smoothing out of habit later, I went back to the closet and pulled out my favorite yellow waistcoat and slung that on quickly before I took a light blue kerchief from the nearby drawer and tied it as I went to the kitchen. 

By the time the last of my buttons was buttoned and I was standing in my kitchen, I still couldn't dismiss the faint sense of strangeness in the air and wondered where it could be coming from, pacing around the table and cleaning up some old food crumbs from the supper the night before before going into the pantry and sizing up what I wanted to eat for breakfast. A good breakfast would set everything right!

I chose something simple enough (eggs, bacon, toast, and cheese and ham, mmmm!) and took the few plates necessary for the meal on my arm and hands but couldn't help but turn back and look inside the pantry just as I was leaving.

For some reason the sensation seemed to center in on the pantry and as I stared at the giant larder containing all my delicious food, stocked full with meats, vegetables, a rich array of fruits, and a very sizable (if not coveted) collection of jarred homemade jams and jellies, I noticed that the sense of foreboding came over me even stronger.

My immediate thought was that I had forgotten about something in there or if I accidentally left something out for too long but after finding nothing in the quick glance over, I shrugged and went to the table and started to make breakfast. A good breakfast would set the world right again...

“Where did that blasted pipe get off to?”

Later on even after second breakfast that was the second thing that was quite unusual when it came to my routine. For everyday as long as I could remember, I knew where I had placed my pipe but despite having looked all over my bedroom for it, I just couldn't find it! 

I felt myself huff in irritation, my hands unconsciously beginning to ruffle my skirt because of the itch my own voice triggered in my hair when it got too loud. “Where is it?! I swear, if Falco hid it last night -augh!” 

I couldn't even hide my own frustration anymore and ruffled my fingers through my hair to try and alleviate the tickle in the shoulder length curls but as I kept grumbling, I could hardly stop the sensation! 

Giving up on finding my pipe in my bedroom, I grumbled as I made my way through the spacious Bag End, shuffling about with my head turning every which direction as I wandered into the sitting room. I poked my way through the mantle above the fireplace and rummaged around near the pile of books and maps near the chair, scratching my head when I couldn't find the (much wanted, much sought for, much desired, much _NEEDED_ ) pipe in any of the normal spots.

When all the sitting room was turned over and still failed to produce said pipe, I groaned loudly and knotted my fingers back into the fabric of my skirt before taking off for my study, going immediately to my writing desk and finding not a trace of it hiding among the papers and empty ink jars. I eventually ended up on my hands and knees to look underneath the desk, and stacks of overturned books and maps that I had planned to earlier catalog into some semblance of order. 

When all that still failed to produce my pipe, I scavenged the drawers around the room, pulling them out and shoving them back in harshly, each one huffing a gasp of touch against my knee with each slamming noise before the last one finally was tugged open and there, amidst all my inks and quills, was my much sought for pipe!

“Now what are you doing there?”

I asked even as I grabbed it and held it, looking at it like it could tell me anything but the note next to it was all that I needed to tell me exactly what had happened. As I picked it up, I could feel a frown come across my face, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment because of how it said the pipe had come to be in the drawer in the first place.

_'Left this here so you would remember to work on your book! - BB'_

“Oh, Bilbo Baggins... you...” 

I huffed and sputtered and could barely think and remembered how I had gone to the Green Dragon the night before and how I stumbled back in late at night, thinking it cute when I came up with the idea to place my pipe in there so that I would remember to actually work on my story rather than smoke the day away.

“...that was in such poor taste.”

I scratched again at my head as I made my way back to the main foyer and finally breathed some fresh air as I headed outside, instantly taking in the brightness of the morning and the cool touch of the breeze. It was indeed as good a morning as I first noticed, I noted as I sat down on the nearby bench and enjoyed the sight of the Shire busy at work as farmers busily tended to their crops and milked their cows nearby.

I lit my pipe and breathed in, letting my thoughts just settle on nothing at all as I listened to the sounds of the Shire, the breeze and the children and the voices all covering me with their all too familiar blanket that seemed to keep me safe from everything else.

I had no idea how long I sat outside on the bench minding my own business and enjoying the sounds and sensations of the Shire but just as I was thinking of going in for lunch, I felt a wisp of smoke flit against my nose and startle me! Instantly my eyes opened because I had never felt such a sensation before and if it were someone calling me to get my attention, then I didn't want to be rude and make them think that I had been sleeping or anything. I was a respectable hobbit lass and I would eagerly greet anyone who had come to my door.

When I opened my eyes though and saw a very tall man dressed entirely in grey colored robes (each in a state of curiously worn shabbiness) standing there looking - _no, staring!_ \- at me, I couldn't help but feel quite uncomfortable and a blush come to my cheeks from his polite scrutiny. He seemed friendly though with his clear blue eyes but he didn't say anything as he continued to stare. I squirmed in my seat looking at him in confusion and darting my eyes to see if anyone I knew was nearby. Seeing no one and him just looking at me waiting for something, I settled on directly addressing him.

“Good morning.”

I was relieved that my voice came out steady enough but my nervous flick with my pipe poked me on the edge of my mouth rather than go in smoothly and without skipping a beat at all, the older man greeted back, “What do you mean? Do you mean to wish me a good morning or do you mean it is a good morning whether I want it or not?”

His voice was steady with just a hint of amusement, a slight teasing nature becoming apparent even as he grinned down at me. As he spoke, his voice was in my ears and pressing against my right shoulder but it did not beckon me or pull me in any which direction as can sometimes happen with more forceful voices but his just sat there, a steady pressure that continued as he spoke and stopped when he finished his question towards me.

“Or,” I quickly glanced at my shoulder because of how tangible the pressure was, “Perhaps, you mean to say that you feel good on this particular morning? Or are you simply stating that this is a morning to be good on?”

I was beside myself with confusion because of the strange line of questioning this old man was putting me through and because ever since I was younger, all the voices around me had faded to almost a dull plethora of incomprehensible sensations save for only the loudest or sharpest. This old man's voice was far from the loudest or clearest but his was far from a dull sensation that I could not immediately place. Despite his voice becoming louder and gruffer from the inflections of his amusement, I realized it did little to affect how tangible the sensation was against my shoulder. It was just as steady and just sitting there like it was and had always been there. It left me befuddled and my throat dry because never could I remember hearing such a voice before.

“All of them at once, I suppose?”

How thankful I was for being raised like a proper Hobbit lass where manners were bred into one's very being with just as much routine as washing your feet before bed. In my confusion and shock, it was the only saving grace I could muster for this man. I had no idea what to really say to all of that and it seemed he did not much like my answer for as soon as I said it, he hummed low in his throat, a most displeased tone if ever I heard one! In response to the change of tone, the sensation on my right shoulder pushed forward gently even as he frowned at me. 

Without even realizing how I had even reacted to the influence of the feeling on my shoulder, I sat back up straight again, baffled by how I allowed myself to be pushed along by his voice. I tried to keep my eyes on him but by then I was so nervous and couldn't keep still, wriggling in my seat like I made to get up, before I remembered myself and attempted to calm my nerves and focus on the old man again. I was intent to show him my manners and not rush off back into my home like a scared bunny. I was a proper Baggins of Bag End, after all!

“Can I help you?”

“That remains to be seen...” At this he seemed to look at me expectantly, “I'm looking for someone to share in an adventure?”

My pipe fell from my mouth because of _all_ the things I anticipated him answering my question with, that one was very much not something I would have expected!

If I thought I was baffled before by the general mystery of this old man and the confusing state he put me in, I could hardly deny that I was more so now. I couldn't even properly think of how to address such a question politely because adventuring in the Shire was unheard of! It was very much un-lass like, and it was confounded and unexpected and unruly and- and-

I just had an adventure this morning, _thank you very much_!

In my mind looking for my pipe had been quite more than enough adventure for me! I had been flustered and irritated while looking for just a little pipe and if this man wanted me to go on an adventure with him (a proper one at that) then, I couldn't even imagine what I would be going through!

I was almost tempted to let a blunt-witted _'what'_ escape from my lips but reigned back my surprise because I was a proper hobbit lass and we did not say such indelicate things. “An adventure?”

Yes, I reckoned that was much better that just a dull what and it seemed to help me find the Baggins in me because immediately, I felt myself compose a little and a polite smile turn up my lips, “Now, I don't imagine anyone west of Bree would have much interest in adventures.”

Yes, that was the proper thing to say and it was even more helpful than what I expected because then the old man could find someone else who was more than willing to adventure with him. 

Once it was out of my mouth with a slight tickle in my hair, I felt most satisfied that that was enough for this conversation and instantly felt a relief settle over me as I stood from my bench and smoothed down my skirts. The old man just continued to look at me though and just to clarify to him why I could not, I continued as I went to my mailbox to collect my mail, “Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things.”

I put my pipe in my mouth so that I could sort through my mail, “Make you late for dinner, heh!”

I wanted to end this conversation as quickly as possible by showing him how very busy I was but he just continued to watch me in my flurry of movement, seeming to take in an interest in the show I was most likely providing for him. Nervously I finished sorting through my mail with the look of purpose but he just continued to stand there and honestly in my mind, I could hardly think of what to say to make him go away for even as much as I liked his seemingly friendly nature, I was not going on any adventures! 

Now, if he wanted to come inside for tea or something on some other day when I hadn't wrecked my hobbit-hole in my earlier adventure to find my pipe then that we could have eventually agreed upon. However, as of right then, I was indeed very busy but I had to at least say something other than an outright refusal. It would have been very impolite just to say no with little else done to ease the rejection. 

What came out was a jumble of sounds and odd pipe smoking and a nervous, “Good morning!”

How mortified I was by this because it was hardly respectable but now that it was all said and done, I felt that that was truly the most I could provide for this conversation. In a strange sense of defeat and desire to get away from this strange old man, I turned to leave and quickly scampered up the steps, “To think that I should have lived to be good morning'd by Belladonna Took's daughter, as if I were selling buttons at the door!”

His words were clear in the breeze of the day but as he spoke, the weight of his voice's pressure on my shoulder seemed to gravitate back almost like a tug and as he continued, I felt it harder to leave him as quickly as I would have otherwise liked. It was such a steady pressure, almost as if his physical hand were holding me back to prevent me from leaving! I was suddenly reminded of how earlier in our conversation his voice had made me lean forward because it had seemed to tug me forward.

I turned around to face him just as he finished because I was shocked by the fact that his voice changed in such a way. I was used to sensations providing different levels of intensity but to actually change in what it physically felt like to me was so unlike anything I had ever felt before! It left me unable to find the words to even address the fact that he mentioned my Mum's name with such an ease of familiarity as if he knew her as well as any other Hobbit! 

“Beg your pardon?”

“You've changed, and not entirely for the better, Bilbo Baggins!”

I was taken aback by what he said because along with knowing my Mum, he also knew me well enough by name and to assume that I had changed somewhere along the course of my life. I was at once struck by my own sense of rudeness for if he truly did know me, how must he think of me now that I've obviously forgotten him!? 

I didn't have any sort of proper response to what he said for never had I forgotten anyone quite so badly as I had this old man with such a distinctive voice. In a fit that looked probably more like indignation, I blurted out, “I'm sorry do I know you?”

The tone of my own voice made the sensation in my hair tickle horribly and I unconsciously clenched my hand in my skirt, listening to his response when he answered in a rather long way that his name was Gandalf...and that Gandalf were he.

As soon as he said the name though, I recalled the sensation against my shoulder from when I was a wee faunt, standing behind my Mum's skirts even as she tried to introduce me to the extremely tall grey cloaked man. His voice produced the same pressure against my right shoulder as it did now and he seemed to smile at me with a glint in his eye when I looked at where I felt it in surprise. It wasn't even until later in the party that I even warmed up to him and that was only because of his amazing fireworks that lit up the night sky so beautifully.

How I remembered him as we sat side by side next to my parents, watching the fireworks as each dashed up the sky in a beautiful display each different from the last. With each new firework, wave after wave of heat rolled in my mouth that bordered on too hot at the initial burst of light but left a tingling sensation as they fizzled out into darkness.

“Not Gandalf, the wandering wizard who made such excellent fireworks!” -and was the very first person who knew that I was gifted with something as unique and amazing as the Ear Touch though how he had known has ever been a mystery to me. 

Nevertheless, I was happy when Gandalf finally started to smile at me again instead of looking so displeased, “Old Took used to have them on midsummer's eve!” I recalled with a friendly chuckle and a quick puff of my pipe, “No idea you were still in business!”

In my head it sounded friendly enough to say but as soon as it came out of my mouth, I almost wanted to pinch myself such was my horror at how rude it felt in my hair. I knew it sounded much too indelicate and presumptuous of me because as soon as it did leave my mouth, I saw the smile on Gandalf's face fall into such a frown. “...and where else should I be?”

The garbled sounds that came unbidden from my mouth could only be covered up by putting the pipe back in my mouth and hoping that no answer was far better than the horrible possibility of making anymore ungainly noises. Such things could hardly pass as responses for any manner of question, respectable or not! 

Immediately I felt embarrassment wash over me as he mumbled to himself about how I only could remember that one fact about him, my cheeks flushing terribly as his disappointment became evident. 

“Well that's decided! It'll be very good for you and most amusing for me. I shall inform the others!”

My heart dropped in my stomach because all of a sudden I remembered why Gandalf had even come to my hobbit-hole in the first place and now the very real possibility of him coming by with others! It was all too much and immediately my thoughts scattered and I panicked, protesting about informing said others and hurrying back up the steps to my door before his voice could try and pull me back towards him. 

I was flustered and shouting, “We do not want any adventures here, thank you!”

I itched my head when the tickle became too intense to ignore and turned to just run back into the house (scared little bunny be damned) but then that would be terribly rude and I stopped myself at the last moment and turned back to Gandalf, who now looked on in amusement at my display, “I suggest you try over the hill or across the water-” I tried helpfully but stopped because I couldn't think of anything else at all productive to say that was any different than what I had said earlier. 

Without anything better to say, I just put all my trust on the manners that were bred into me just as deeply as washing my feet before bed and blindly hoped that they knew what to say when I did not!

“Good morning!!” I huffed loudly with a forceful slam of my door, locking it and hopefully putting any last memory of what could have been a very real adventure as far from Bag End as possible.


	3. An Unexpected Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests for our unexpected party start showing up!

Despite being safely back in my Hobbit-hole, happy to think that that was indeed the last I would hear of any such adventuring business, I was surprised by the sound of something scratching against the bottom of my door. Faint but loud enough to be noticed, its echo of sound through the door tingled its way up my back. 

I shuddered with how ominous it felt and waited until I could no longer quell my curiosity and went to the nearby window to see what Gandalf could have possibly been doing to my lovely door. Almost as soon as I was in front of it though, his face was there blocking my window -looking in to try and find me- and I squeaked back out of fright and landed on my bum in a tangle of puffed skirts. 

Completely unbefitting of a proper Hobbit, I immediately crawled out of view into the nearby hallway to hide from his eyes.

As soon as his shadow was gone from the window, I hurriedly crawled along the floor and managed to pick myself up just in time to view him from another window. I eagerly watched him as he hobbled down my small steps and passed my gate, casually beginning to walk down the pathway that would lead back out into the main section of the Shire.

As I watched him go, completely carefree and unaware about the horrid state of fluster he left me in, I was even amazed to find that he was humming in merriment about the entire affair! I felt his humming voice on my shoulder just as solidly as ever until he was out of view and just as it was there before, the heavy sensation left and made me sigh out in relief. He truly was gone.

When I pulled back from the window that time I infinitely felt better about the fact that Gandalf was gone and that he seemed to have gotten my message about heading back to wherever he was off to. I couldn't help but feel my relief at the prospect of having avoided the whole nasty adventure business and righted my skirts before I turned back to my sitting room and looked around. 

It was still messy from my earlier search and I decided to pick up a bit before I would make lunch.

Despite my earlier encounter with the mysterious wizard the rest of my day passed by uneventfully and rather like every other day that came to the Shire. More than any other day though, I was happy that this was the case. Gandalf's visit that morning had left me in a terrible state of fright that even somewhat affected how lunch sat with me but by the evening, I was well and truly pleased by how the rest of my day had gone and headed off to bed without much of a thought as to what the next day would bring.

When I awoke the next morning, the feeling of strangeness was completely gone and I smiled in contentment from the warmth of my bed and actually felt compelled to stay underneath the covers for just a little bit longer than usual. Of course, a little bit longer than usual did nothing to delay breakfast and without even bothering to change into proper clothes, I prepared a big breakfast and ate until my belly felt ready to burst from just one more bite (though that one extra bite did not burst my belly). 

I knew that I wanted to garden and generally run about outside all day and decided on a simple shirt that I rolled up to my elbows and a high waisted brown skirt that buttoned and had a set of buttons ready to hook my suspender braces onto. I straightened my suspenders once I clicked them on, pulling up a lighter petticoat underneath my skirt before heading off to fetch my gardening supplies.

The day was busy and passed quickly; I picked the vegetables that were ripe and arranged various flowers to put in jars around my hobbit-hole. I went off to the market around lunch time and bought some fabric and thread so that I could make some new lighter skirts for the summer that wasn't too far off. 

All in all, once I was ready to turn in for some supper, I felt pretty confident that the night would be just as any other night before it.

Wrapped in my favorite dressing robe and having just finished cooking up a fresh plate of fish, I settled in for some supper and was squeezing some lemon on top for some extra flavor when I was interrupted by the entirely surprising and unexpected jingle of my doorbell.

I sat for a moment absolutely still because I was sometimes a very forgetful hobbit and in my mind I was already going over whether or not I had invited someone over for dinner and simply forgotten. I wasn't able to remember inviting anyone over when I was out earlier but I couldn't be rude and just not answer the door either.

Before I went to answer the door, I made sure to wipe my hands and rushed over because already I felt that I made my visitor wait long enough as it was. Already I wondered who could possibly be outside my door since any hobbit knew what time it was and wouldn't just come on over unless it was something of an emergency. What could more of an emergency though than one's eating their supper on time? Just as I opened the door I felt surprise come to my features even more than before because of all the visitors I would expect, a dwarf certainly was not one of them!

As he heard my door open, he turned to face me and I was taken aback by how very large and burly he was, a look of put upon annoyance on his face almost hidden underneath all the facial hair that his beard and side burns made up. His beard was indeed most impressive but his head was strangely bald and covered in an unusual display of tattoos that immediately had me gaping up at him. 

If that were not enough to startle me, his attire was equally unusual as no hobbit was quite so well acquainted with the need for such a heavy use of fur and leather in one's taste of garb. Was it a dwarf thing to look two times their normal size in such things?

“Dwalin, at your service.”

He bowed in my direction, his eyes never leaving mine even as his gruff voice greeted me in an unexpectedly polite manner. His voice tickled across my left cheek and I unknowingly chuckled at the light sensation before I immediately remembered my manners and my appearance. I was a lass in her dressing robe and though I was still wearing my earlier attire underneath, I still could not very well go around with everything _hanging_ about in such an undignified manner.

“Bilbo Baggins, at yours...?”

I gave a quick bow of my own though it was hardly anything more than a quick nod; for Dwalin it seemed to be more than enough. He rushed inside even as I held out my hand to try and stop him, even just to slow him down a little! “Uh, excu- , do we know each other?”

I was just like any other hobbit in the Shire who was usually one for visitors but I really did want to know them before they came visiting! Even though Dwalin seemed to be polite enough, I really had no idea who he was or why he was allowing himself inside just so casually! He came inside though, uncaring if I allowed him in or not and barely gave me enough time to step aside before he almost stepped on my foot.

As he heard my question, his dark eyes shifted down on me, his mouth frowning. Now he just seemed annoyed by such an earnest request, “No.”

I stammered without really wanting to and blushed from his answer because once he said it, it really was only too obvious that I would not know him and how rude was it of me to even suggest that we might have!? He was a dwarf after all and I a hobbit and where else would we have come across one another unless we had indeed met before?

“Which way, laddie?”

My thoughts were in a turmoil over my own rudeness and how I could now be a proper host with such a visitor as Dwalin. Despite the fact that I had not invited him over, Dwalin was now a good an invited guest as any and I would provide for him just the same. As soon as the tickle brushed against my cheek though, I stopped and realized what he just called me. Laddie? Did he just call me a boy? 

“Is it down here?”

I watched him as he shrugged off his rough looking cloak, going momentarily into my sitting room before turning back to me and coming back, “Is what down where?” I implored, confused and wanting to know more.

“Supper!”

I was not particularly ready for my guest to just haphazardly throw his cloak at me to hang up for him but just as he exclaimed it in a kind of delight, he tossed it in my direction and I barely caught it in a huff of protest. Now, I prided myself on being one to entertain guests of all types; Lobelia Sackville-Baggins was no easy guest but Dwalin was by far the most unusual because even Lobelia handed me her things to take care of before going off to steal some of my nicer spoons! 

In my haste to get his cloak off my face and into my arms, I missed everything else that Dwalin might have said and noticed that he was no longer in sight. Nervous for the state of my kitchen and where my guest could be, I hurried along to hang up his cloak.I practically ran all the way back into my kitchen where I was greeted by the sight of my esteemed guest sitting at my dining table eating what was supposed to have been my supper! 

I didn't know what to say at the sight of him heartily digging into my food but as a host I guess I was happy enough that he seemed to like what was cooked albeit not for him...

I wasn't quite sure what I was then supposed to do since I still did not quite know why Dwalin was here and in my confusion, I could do little more than shuffle and nervously clutch my skirt. Already he was almost finished with what I would have considered to be quite a large supper and he eagerly cleaned every itch of the plate, leaving only just the head of the fish itself.

Needing to be a good host, I went to step forward to take the plate from him and offer him perhaps some tea but just as I did so, Dwalin just up and devoured the fish head, bone and all as if it were nothing! I squeaked back out of shock, his voice the entire time he groaned and chewed in enthusiasm tickling and prodding at my left cheek until I was sure my face was scrunched up unpleasantly. “Very good, this! Is there anymore?”

Without a second's hesitation, the host in me sprang up and I quickly nodded and went to fetch Dwalin a cup of tea, setting it next to his plate quickly with a spoon, a tiny cup of sugar cubes, and a saucer of milk. I hustled back around the table and picked up a nearby plate of seed-cakes that I always kept nearby just for my after dinner deserts. I was very hungry myself for Dwalin had unknowingly interrupted my own dinner. Just as I put two of the cakes down on my own plate and held out the rest for him to take however many he wanted, we both looked up at the sound of the doorbell ringing again.

I was frozen in my spot, unable to comprehend what my doorbell ringing even meant for I already had a guest and was I getting another now or was that a mistake and I just misheard (regardless of how the bell's sound always poked the back of my knee)? 

So flustered was I that I didn't even notice Dwalin's eyes meet mine in a knowing grin. He swallowed some of the seed-cake that he previous scarfed on and gruffed out, “That'll be the door.”

I waved off the tickle against my cheek, nerves racked now that I was informed of yet another guest but I was determined now not to let myself be startled again or surprised! I was a Baggins of Bag End and I would properly greet this guest in a manner much more befitting than how I improperly greeted Dwalin. Guests did indeed deserve that much respect! 

I left the plate with Dwalin and signaled with my hands to let him know that I was getting the door and scurried off to greet my newest guest.

Upon opening my door, I was greeted by yet another dwarf though this one looked to be very much older than Dwalin if his well managed waist length white beard was anything to go by. His attire was also very different from Dwalin's roughen and road wearied clothes. It was well tended and clean looking, its richly dyed red fabrics easily standing out despite the dark night. 

“Balin, at your service.”

He accented voice was kind and polite and I absentmindedly ran my fingers over the tickle that came to my right cheek. It struck me as so familiar to how Dwalin's voice felt to me. Sensations that came with voices were never easily mistaken for another usually each one a unique touch but Balin's ran over my opposite cheek in the exact same manner as Dwalin's did. If their names were anything to help -by the sound of their voices- were they perhas family?

I watched in a sort of daze as Balin flourished his greeting with a swift bow, bending at the waist to show his utmost respect for the host of the hobbit hole that was currently before him. Once done, he looked at me in expectation and I snapped out of my thoughts. I realized I hadn't actually greeted him in return and that unlike my previous encouragement to be a good host, I couldn't even think of what to say to such a polite dwarf!

“Thank you!”

Inwardly, I winced because that was not what I wanted to say in response to Balin's very proper greeting. The old dwarf didn't seem to mind in the slightest that my manners were not very well -er- mannered at the moment and simply came in after I stepped aside with a resigned sort of air about me. “Good evening.”

I tried to salvage what I could from my first attempt at introductions with Balin and he seemed to appreciate this with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips before he nodded briefly, “Yes, it is. Though I think it might rain later.”

He looked around the hallways of Bag End in curiosity, leaning one way and then the other before his eyes caught sight of something, “OH!” I startled in surprise and turned to face whatever he saw, immediately eyeing the sight of Dwalin madly attempting to liberate some cookies from one of my cookie jars that sat on one of the shelves of my sitting room. His hand was too far large, barely fitting inside and making the struggle look awkward and yet surprisingly adorable.

I was surprised to find that Dwalin and Balin did indeed seem to know one another for when Balin greeted him (rather more politely than I managed to greet either of them), he called him brother and the two exchanged a few friendly barbs at one another before they were leaning in close and – OH! What was _that_!? My head was knocked back with the pressure of the sensation and I stumbled into the nearby wall because I was so blown away by what I just felt! The brothers actually _head butted_ one another and the resulting sound was just so _abnormal_! 

What in the?! I _never_ before felt anything like that in my entire life and I rubbed at my forehead in protest to the after shock of what I obviously experienced! 

What was _wrong_ with dwarves?! They actually head butted each other in greeting?! _Who_ did such things!? No wonder I felt as if I couldn't properly greet them! If that was how they really did such things!

By the time I actually managed to open my eyes, I was left by myself in the hallway leading to the sitting room and I immediately began to worry about where the two brothers had gotten off to. With Dwalin and Balin no longer in my sight, I almost panicked at the thought of the trouble they were getting themselves into but I had to remind myself that I was a host and it was rather unbecoming to think of my guests as such nuisances.

Just as I was about to go off and find the two brothers to prevent them from...what? Possibly head butting each other further or maybe even my walls, I heard the sound and the brush against the back of my knee of my door bell once again jingling. Who else could possibly be arriving at my front doorstep? How many others were there and were these undoubtedly more dwarves? Were they going to head butt me in greeting?!

Forgetting all sense of decorum and just needing to answer the door, I hobbled back to the foyer still slightly dizzy from the sensation I felt against my forehead. 

I answered the door, really only expecting to find one dwarf but couldn't hide the sound of dismay I let slip at the sight of not one dwarf but two more! They were much younger than both Dwalin and Balin, the dwarf on the left smiling at me confidently with his finely braided golden hair and fur trimmed jacket and the one on the right seemingly much more serious with his brunette hair and leather jacket. 

He locked eyes with me almost instantly with such an intense gaze that it bordered very nearly on creepy.

“Fili,” The one on the left introduced himself and I instantly straightened, a flush coming to my cheeks because his voice was just- just inappropriate! It was a wisp of sensation that teased at my butt but only on the right cheek exactly where one would cup. I dreaded the moment the other would speak due to the fact that the brunette next to him was most assuredly his brother and would likely have a similar- “Kili.”

_Yep_ , there it was, a tease running along my left butt cheek and my flush intensified; these two brothers were so inappropriate and I wanted them to leave immediately or stop talking, whichever one would make the uncomfortable sensations stop sooner!

They both bowed with a flourish in perfect sync, speaking together still that they were at my service (of course).How awful it was that they were at my service because their voices felt just as real as their hands would have been had they been cupping at me underneath my skirts, “You must be, Miss Boggins!”

Kili's excitement was quite evident by how he smiled and puffed up his chest at his assumption, though I daresay he was wrong about my name. Even if I wanted to try and correct him, his tone made that impossible. As he became more excited, the feeling against my butt increased with a sharp nip until I yelped out in embarrassment! “NO! No! You can't come in!” 

His voice actually pinched my butt! It pinched me! Had his tone no shame!? I was a proper hobbit lass and my face was assuredly the most red it had been in my entire life! I had to get these two to go away with all haste because to allow them inside and actually engage in any sort of conversation would be the death of my very sanity! 

“You've come to the wrong place!” 

I tried to close the door on them but Kili slammed his foot into the door and pushed back against the wooden surface with his hand so that I couldn't close it, “What? Has it been cancelled?”

“No one told us.”

Fili and Kili were too much, ganging up on me physically in two very different ways, their bodies clearly preventing me from just shutting them out and their voices curling and pinching at me in the most unbecoming manner. I tried to remember my manners but manners had never taught me how to keep my composure when the voices of two dwarves speaking together one after the other kept creeping along any sort of intimate parts.

I decided that I had very little choice other than to just get them inside and as far away from me as possible. 

I needed them back towards Dwalin and Balin and quickly answered, “No, nothing's been cancelled-”

“Well, that's a relief!” Kili replied excitedly and flat out pushed passed me, the door swinging wide open and sending me back against the wall in a huff. At the same time his brother, Fili noticed just how red my face was, his eyes catching mine as he sauntered inside and turned to me. 

Something was held out for me to take and I automatically grabbed it, noticing that it was Kili's quiver and bow. I barely had enough time to even put that on my shoulder before Fili was calling my attention back to him with a pinch and stroke along my butt cheek, “Careful with these, I just had them sharpened.”

He was actually passing me his weapons for me to take care of! I could hardly believe the audacity of these two dwarves, carting off knife after knife into my arms with hardly a concern if I were even ready to take such a load! Kili was off behind me asking me about my hobbit hole and I could only politely answer back with minimal details about how it was just in my family for years because his voice was still rambling on and my face was so flushed with embarrassment. 

Fili looked to be having quite an amusing time pulling out all his various hidden daggers in a show of dwarfish pride. As each one was taken by either my hand or set on the growing pile in my arms, I was sure Fili couldn't help but notice that my face just kept getting redder and redder as his brother rambled on. 

How very horrible all of this was!

He really must have thought I fancied them or something because he just smirked at me with that ever present confident look in his eyes, setting the very last of the actually impressive count of blades in my hands. 

“Fili! Kili!” 

A brush of sensation against my left cheek and I looked back just in time to see Dwalin take Kili by the shoulder and lead him away, “Come on, give us a hand!”

“Mr. Dwalin!”

As a host I was happy enough that they all knew each other and did not need any sort of introductions from me but equally as a host I was horrified by the fact that they seemed to be doing some rearranging with my furniture in my dining room! I scurried close on their tail, overwhelmed by the addition of Balin's voice across my other cheek, giving them instructions to move the table a certain way because how else would they get everyone in?

“Everyone?!” 

I protested because just the very idea of anymore dwarves coming into my home and – Augh! Even just the thought that there were more of them with voices like Fili and Kili's made me want to protest and throw them all out, manners definitely be damned! 

By Yavanna, I was a hobbit lass and even though I entertained men when I was younger and more "adventurous", I was certainly not about to be felt up by any more voices! No! Not today! Not ever, thank you! 

“How many more are there!?”

I tried to scuffle inside the dining room but Dwalin blocked me effortlessly, his bulky form easily towering over me and keeping me back as I was helpless but to watch as Kili and Fili picked up my table and started to move it. The jingle of my doorbell was just the very last straw! I would have no more visitors tonight! No! None at all!

Quickly I turned around to send back my newest arrivals, scampering off in a huff that made my hair tickle impossibly, “Ah! Oh no! No no! There's nobody home!” 

Still burdened by the heavy load of weapons that Fili and Kili deposited onto me, I realized I could hardly answer the door in such a way. I was so upset by everything by that point as well that I was quite fed up and decided to just deal with my utter disregard for manners and what propriety would demand of me. 

“Go away,” I dumped Fili's swords (and everything that was placed on top of the scabbard) first as they were taking up all my arms, not even caring if they clanged horribly on my nearby furniture. I did not care at all anymore! His knife collection soon followed, “- and bother someone else!” 

Kili's bow and quiver went the same way, loudly crashing into a pile as I made my way back towards my foyer and the door that would contain even more of my unwanted and uninvited guests! I was ranting and raving about there being far too many dwarves already in my dining room and I was calling people clotheads and itching my head roughly with how frustrated I was! I was a hobbit!! A proper hobbit lass and what was happening to me right now was anything but polite! Who was even the cause of all this madness?!

I gripped the door, ready to turn everyone away at the step but as soon as I swung it open, I stumbled back out of shock because it wasn't just one or two dwarves but rather a whole throng of them! A throng of dwarves on my doorstep now tumbling into my home all on top of the other! They were groaning and moaning at people to move their limbs and get off of them and their voices tingled against my skin in an incomprehensible nightmare of sensations and I just wanted it to stop! 

I looked up and stumbled upon my words; there peaking down into my hobbit hole was the unassuming but complete disturber of the peace himself Gandalf, who exactly very much was he. 

“Gandalf...”

Truly he did inform the others...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment below with suggestions or reviews. :D


	4. The Battle of the Larder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title really says it all, doesn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't as long, unfortunately. I just had a really hard time writing... 
> 
> My background music just wasn't agreeing with me or I actually just wanted to write some pwp. I'm really just not quite sure. So yeah, it's a little shorter.
> 
> Fortunately! What that means is that Thorin WILL be showing up in the next chapter because I need this to start moving a bit faster.
> 
> After the party, things will be moving a bit faster in general since travel times won't be described so much.

Chaos followed the arrival of the great tumbling band of dwarves, who were also introduced so quickly one after another by Gandalf that I wasn't sure if I actually remembered any of their names at all. Maybe the red headed one was Oin? Or was that Gloin? Was the dwarf with the axe in his forehead Bombur?

Regardless of how badly I was at keeping their names straight, all of them were at my service as they all explained happily enough, though their voices were completely disrupting in various ways that I couldn't quite easily describe with them crashing over one another. Much like how Dwalin did, I was made to take cloaks and hoods in a rush of tossed fabric and barely had enough time to accept their packs one after another before I realized that nearly all my pegs were taken up by someone's coat or cloak. I became so flustered from my activities that on my way back, I had to shuck my colorful dressing robe. While it was fine to wear clothing and a robe when one was hardly doing anything strenuous, having to be at a dwarves' service so thoroughly was exhausting! Sweaty from all my efforts, I went back to where all their voices echoed in the hopes that everything had calmed a little but that hope was short lived.

In my absence the Fili and Kili had placed my kitchen table inside one of the sitting rooms, across the hallway from the pantry. In a rush of activity that made the hallway connecting the two rooms particularly treacherous, the newcomers were raiding my larder! Each of them had a handful of my plates, bowls, cutlery, and they were going back for the food even as I watched on in horror! 

“Put that back!”

I shouted as I sprinted into the hallway where I saw Dwalin with a giant plate of scones. I was intent on taking back what was my food! A proper host would demand that they ask or have it offered! They couldn't just take it! 

Just as I was about to grab the plate from him though, I was almost trampled by two more dwarves and had to push into Dwalin to avoid them. The hard press of him at my front made me blush as he looked down at me sharply, his eyes taking in my little form before he grinned at me, “Not a laddie, then.”

His voice stroked my cheek suggestively and I turned redder at the thought of what softness he undoubtedly now felt being so closely pressed to him. His new discovery did little to hinder his original plan of carrying back the plate of scones; he merely stepped back away from me and moved out of my path, raising the plate high above me so that I couldn't even dare to reach for it!

“Those are my plates!”

One of them walked passed me carrying a load of my plates while another brushed by with a bowl of fruit in arm. “Put that down!” I shouted but he just moseyed on by as if he hadn't even heard me at all! How utterly rude! I couldn't even believe any of this was happening to me! “That's my knife!” 

I was stuck in the middle of the frenzy, forced to look on as they hustled around me taking whatever it was they wanted from my larder and I helpless to really try and stop them. I only won little battles by physically grabbing back bowls or plates but as soon as I placed them back where they belonged, I would turn and see them being carried off by another dwarf!

“Not my jam, please!”

I saw one with a strange star shaped hairstyle taking a few of my jars of homemade jam from the shelves and I hurried back to try and stop him. Before I could reach him or even get his attention, I was unceremoniously shoved aside by a bushy bearded red headed dwarf! As light on my feet as I could be, he managed to catch me off balance and I stumbled back unbecomingly until I accidentally bumped into someone else. 

It was quite a bit of a surprise, really, how easily all the dwarves could make one feel so little in such a large hobbit hole but it seemed like I was bumping into everyone!

I tried to turn around to apologize to whoever it was I bumped into but I was caught between the door and what seemed to be one of my ale barrels...and a soft head? I was instantly horrified by the very thought that I stumbled back into someone enough to push them over! How utterly improper of me not to watch where I was going even as I was stumbling! As I turned around to apologize, I saw that it was Fili, who seemed to have already been kneeling down to inspect the nozzle of the ale barrel; upon seeing me and my hip only inches from him, his surprised look spread into a cheeky grin.

“Miss Hobbit, I hardly know you.”

His voice rolled over me in such a dulcet flow, silky and teasingly rich, the sensation of such velvety tones cupping at me underneath my skirts. I groaned before I even knew what I was doing, pressing into the barrel of ale without wanting to, my hands gripping the edge even as I rocked against the hard surface. The grin on his face instantly fell, his surprise betraying him before Kili distracted him with a light tease that quickly stole his attention.

Needing some space between the blonde dwarf and his voice, I turned away from the two young brothers but almost smacked into an immensely fat dwarf! The fact that he carried some my cheese wheels stacked on top of another was probably another point that stopped me from just moving out of the way from instinct alone. 

Instantly thoughts of Fili and how his voice affected me were gone, replaced with the need to save my pantry and the contents inside. 

“A tad excessive, don't you think?!”

I tried to be forceful like a mother would and how my own Mum had been when she caught me making mischief but the dwarf just flat out ignored me! Flat out ignored me as if I hadn't spoken at all! 

“Have you even got a cheese knife?!”

I tried because I knew a losing battle when I saw one and this was just another one that I would lose when it came to the war of the food pantry. “A cheese knife? He eats it by the block!”

Absolutely nothing at all about this night was going the way I originally planned for it and no joking from any dwarf was going to change that very important fact. Despite my mood and how I bristled with the anger I felt for constantly being ignored and pushed aside, I couldn't stop the laughter that came from my mouth when the dwarf behind me teased playfully. I stood there in shock as he smiled at me, moving out of my way so that he could step pass me with some cutlery atop a pile of plates.

His voice. It was. It was... heartbreakingly playful. 

In just that short sentence, that happy and teasing tone of his accented voice brushed along the tops of my feet and tickled me so skillfully that I was at once reminded of my Mum and how her voice did much of the same thing on the soles of my feet.

I was pulled from my thoughts by the sight of the red headed dwarf (was that Gloin or his brother Oin?) and the dwarf from before who didn't hear me bringing some of my old furniture into the room where they were still assembling their great feast. Instantly I recognized it as some of my Grandpa's furniture, pouncing on the white haired dwarf and shoving back on the antique chair, “No! That's Grandpa Mungo's chair!”

“I can't hear ya, laddie!”

My right ear twitched from the feeling of something inside my ear and I tried to bat it away even as I attempted to keep him from the dining room. His statement also explained why he so easily dismissed me before before but that didn't change anything about the fact that these chairs (and where did the other get off to?) just weren't made for sitting on anymore! They were antiques and heirlooms now! They were fragile and if these dwarves had shown me nothing else so far, I knew that they were unable to understand the concept of fragility! I tried again to push back on the chair but the dwarf just insisted on not understanding, pointing to his ear and all the while the sensation against my own ear continued until I just gave up and let him have the chair in a whispered curse of frustration.

“That is a book, not a coaster!”

Finally done fiddling with the barrel of ale, Fili and Kili seemed to be testing the contents of it but they were awful about where they put their tankards! They sloshed them around and set them on my precious books, not even taking a care when one of them overturned and spilled all over one of my tabletops!

Between cleaning that mess up under the grinning eyes of Fili and Kili and having to stop another dwarf from moving my maps around because they apparently wanted the stool they sat on, I was exhausted and huffing and strained with the need to try and not shout out how frustrated I was at having my home invaded by such awful guests. These guests seriously made Lobelia appear quite civil!! 

Not one person uttered a thank you or an apology for running me down in my own home and– I jumped from the shock of it -the dual pinch on both butt cheeks- from the combined effect of Fili and Kili's voices laughing at what a sight I must have made flitting from one room to the other like a fussed squirrel.

I was leaning against the wall just for a moment of rest when I opened my eyes and caught the sight of one of the dwarves, a shorter one and young looking carrying a bowl of something from the larder. His hands covered in fuzzy knit mittens gripped the bowl gently and he moved out of the way when others rushed passed him, excusing himself politely. I was about to just let him go on hi sway (because I couldn't have stopped him anyway) until I saw exactly what was in the bowl.

NO!

NO! That was going too far!

I pushed off the wall and grabbed the bowl of tomatoes picked specifically from my garden and yanked it back from the small dwarf's hands, his grip coming loose easily. 

“Not my prize winners, thank you!”

I pulled the bowl closer and red faced and stammering, he apologized to me for his rudeness and hurried back into the dining room to help with setting up the table beside Gandalf. As soon as he was gone, I felt terrible for practically yelling at the poor thing! The sensation his voice invoked was just so gentle and pure, a slight tickle against my hands that reminded me of squeezing a pile of fur or something as equally soft. He also seemed to be the only one in my house that understood the value of true manners and there I had gone and soiled that with such a show of thoughtlessness.

I almost wanted to give him the bowl back just to apologize for _my_ rude behavior!

Feeling defeated by such a polite little dwarf, I crossed the hallway to put the tomatoes back into the pantry -easily sidestepping dwarves and Gandalf- but only got so far as the door frame before I was throwing up my arms and splattering tomatoes everywhere! Helpless to control it, I laughed desperately and squirmed away from absolutely nothing at all and tripped into the nearby wall. I smacked against the hardened surface and looked frantically for the source of the tickle that harassed my armpits.

Speaking with Gandalf in a rather strange way with hand gestures and a gruff muttering of speech that I could not identify, a dwarf with an axe in his head motioned and hit his arm before Gandalf seemed to agree with a nod of his head, “Yes, you're quite right, Bifur. We appear to be one dwarf short.”

Bifur went off back into the dining room and I was thankfully left with his voice's departure to deal with the stares of the nearby dwarves who probably thought I had gone crazy since their arrival. I would think I went mad too if my recent display was anything to go by, rushing about from room to room trying to save food before being reduced into bouts of laughter from nothing at all.

I set what remained of the bowl of tomatoes down on the nearby tabletop and just stood there for a moment, watching Gandalf and Dwalin speak with one another about one more who was running late. I sighed in frustration and ran my hands through my hair just because I felt so defeated inside my own home, watching as dwarves just helped themselves to things that I should be getting them. 

I was a terrible host. 

I was simply a terrible host just from watching everyone go about their business. I should have been right alongside them offering things as I went and rolling with the punches as well as I could. What would my Mum or Dad said if I told them about how improper I was being?!

“Mr.Gandalf? a little glass of red wine as requested-”

My lips smacked and my tongue rolled in my mouth at the strange sensation of the dwarf's voice, a sort of warm feeling brushing against my tongue and settling there not unlike the red wine that he currently was offering to Gandalf.

“Make yourself useful, _laddie_.”

Dwalin's voice poked at my cheek playfully, his mouth grinning down at me in a jeer that made me blink in confusion before he motioned to his own tankard. Before I even knew what I was doing, my body moved, familiar with motions of being a proper host than really knowing what else to do. I took the tankard from him quickly and filled it up with one of the nearby barrels of ale in the pantry before bringing it back over to him, nodding when he started to drink from it without so much as a nod returned.

I went to the room beyond him and poked my head in, asking if anyone else needed anything more and hearing a few shouts for jams, or cookies, or even an ale. I went back to the pantry and gathered up what items they requested and carefully balanced it all back to the dining room where I was quickly relieved of them. Gandalf caught my eye as I came back over to take his tiny glass, replacing it with a filled cup actually fit for someone his size. His eyes gleamed at me, happy that I was finally taken with the idea of having guests over before he settled into the adjoining room.

Where the entirety of my larder now was happily being tossed back and forth in great handfuls between dwarves, who shouted and cheered whenever one landed in someone's mouth or right in the face.

I stood there, surprised and shocked and horrified at the sound of their voices rolling around me - poke in my belly, a slide along my cheek and ear- until I looked away and it all muddled down into a constant sensation around me. My eyes found the larder easily but inside were only bare pickings at best... 

I had lost the battle of the larder and what made it worse was than at the end, I surrendered to it.


	5. The Last Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thorin finally arrives...

“I just don't understand what they're doing in my house!”

I shouted nearly at the top of my lungs, my head very nearly scratched raw from all my frustrations and the persistent sound of my own protests. Since the dwarves cleaned out the entirety of my pantry, not even bothering to hide that they were making their way to another larder where more of the meats were stored, I was at the end of my rope. Completely at the end of my rope! 

They all had sat there at my table throwing food back and forth, horrified even to see that Gandalf joined in on the merriment with startled tosses of flying food every so often. They feasted, threw food, spilled ale, and cheered their fellow members on when a particularly good catch was made with teeth alone. I was too distracted by Fili brushing alongside me to utter my protests when he quite literally climbed onto my table, offering ales politely all around and very nearly falling off when Dwalin swatted at him in jest. I stared at them taking full gulps of ale like they had all grown gills and switched how they breathed and then took turns belching.

Burps were always a strange sounding sensation as far as I was concerned for Hobbits and given how strange the dwarves' regular voices were, I was hardly surprised when their belches were just as interesting. 

Nori was the first, his belch squeezing my nose unpleasantly before his laughter turned it into an itch that tapped far too much like a doting Grandmother. Ori followed his without pause, the lurch of expelled air booming and loud. I was taken aback by how my hands felt; so sweet and kind the dwarf's voice and sensation were, his belch was easily the loudest thing I had ever heard and likewise, his voice made me look down at my hands. 

Both were empty but if I closed my eyes, I could convincingly tell myself that I had just shoved my hands into a pile of soft kittens. Soft newborn kittens!

After they finished with dinner and some got up to get something more to drink or were off to raid another of my pantries, I trailed along after Nori. He seemed to be cleaning his glass with something that once looked white but now was seeing far better days; it was only a turn in his hand that made me realize that it was one of my doilies! I should have been happy enough as a host that he was bothering to clean it out but not with my doily! Did dwarves have no honor or shame when it came to another's crochet work?

Bofur was a friendly dwarf; that much I had picked up after learning his name again and his voice pulled from me giggles of suppressed laughter as he tried to tell me all about how there were holes in my dish cloths but I had had it! I was irritated and grumbling loudly and near ready to pull out my own hair.

Hence why I was currently standing yelling at Gandalf about how dwarves were running amuck in my house! They trailed mud along the carpets and destroyed my plumbing... 

 

...I didn't even want to think about how I managed upon that discovery...

 

I just wanted them out of my house and nothing of Gandalf's lighthearted protests and explanations were going to do any good! 

“Excuse me,” Kittens. I swear, I could still feel the soft kittens in my hands when Ori spoke to me, “I don't mean to interrupt but what should I do with my plate?”

“Here ya go, Ori, give it to me.”

I yelped at the sound of Fili's voice rubbing along my butt and turned away from him just to be sure that it really wasn't his hands doing that every time he was so close to me. I watched him as he took his plate from Ori and sputtered when he threw it passed Gandalf where his brother, Kili caught it and twisted around to throw it off somewhere else. That seemed to trigger the others with what to do and I had to step out of the way before more plates came whizzing by where Fili could catch them.

While Ori seemed to quite enjoy the sight of my Mother's plates being thrown about like they were worth nothing, I protested and attempted to reach for one of them. Fili just chuckled and twisted away from my grasp, taking a bowl and bouncing it from shoulder to shoulder with a sly grin in my direction. I couldn't help the flush that spread across my cheeks because I realized that he was flirting with me! Flirting with me! Well, not really flirting if he was showing off and trying to look cool but it was- it was- 

What was that sound?

“Can you not do that?!” Bofur and Nori were back at the table sitting by Dori and Gloin and were making a ruckus with some of my knives, clanging them on the table in a rhythm and swiping against one another. “You'll blunt them!”

“Oh, do you hear that lads, she says we'll blunt the knives!”

The tickle on my feet did nothing to dampen the indignation that I felt such a comment. So now they were actively teasing me when they already destroyed my plumbing, raided my larder(s), and were now throwing my dishes around like they had every right to! Of all the things that were just unacceptable in my home, I would not tolerate being made the butt of a joke!

I growled low in my throat at the sound of Kili's voice but it took me a second to even realize that he wasn't talking. He was singing! Oh, by the Valar, they were teasing me through song! If I had been in a better state to accommodate such nonsense, I would have probably noticed that they were cleaning up my plates just as easily as they were pulling out fiddles and flutes to provide themselves with accompanying music but I was practically seething at the disregard for personal property!

The very large tower of plates that Ori carried back to my kitchen made my jaw drop in amazement and I hovered a little too close to him just to be sure that he didn't drop any of them. He smiled at me kindly when he set them down but I was already turning back around to see what else was happening in the dining room. From what I last saw, plates were being tossed everywhere and the singing of voices had grown to the point where I constantly felt them on my body in differing intensities. 

I could feel the tickle of Bofur and Bombur on my feet and stomach; Nori's poke on my nose, Ori and Dori confused my mouth and hands to no end with their sensations! Oin and Gloin made my ears vibrate while Kili and Fili, now so very close might as well have been groping me.

I almost winced at the utter disharmony of sensations and had to close my eyes with how overwhelming the voices were altogether but the sound of Gandalf laughing seemed to cut through all that. His voice settled on my shoulder like a guide and I managed to open my eyes and see that in front of me on the table all my precious plates, bowls and cutlery were safe and sound.

Everyone around me laughed and cheered at the good show and Gandalf winked at me knowingly, pleased when I relented and smiled a little in thanks. The sound of someone knocking made everyone go silent and I looked at Gandalf as even the smile was taken from his face. 

“He is here.”

The last guest that was eluded to earlier was now finally on my doorstep and maybe with his arrival, Gandalf would explain to me why he had even invited dwarves over to my hobbit hole to begin with. I followed the dwarves and Gandalf over to the door, noting with a kind of irritation that they blocked my way so that I couldn't answer my own door. It seemed that Gandalf would do the honors and he opened the door as I tried still to get closer to the door. It was my door, after all!

I couldn't much hear what was going on from the back and I couldn't see anything since everyone was so much taller than I was; Gandalf had let the dwarf inside and he was saying something; as I came closer to the front of the pack, I felt a strange tingle along my skin. His voice was just a deep baritone but I couldn't make out any words, the sensation just barely running along the edges of my consciousness until I brushed passed Dori.

“ -for that mark on the door.”

I shuddered and had to steady myself on the nearby wall.

I looked back to see if maybe Fili or Kili were nearby or maybe even Dori had touched me accidentally but no, he wasn't paying me any mind.

“Mark? There's no mark on that door, it was painted a week ago.”

I tried to make it sound forceful for there really was no mark on the door but as soon as I spoke, I flushed with embarrassment. Was it so obvious? Was that really my voice? Something so breathy and light shouldn't have been my voice when only a moment before it was solid enough.

“There is a mark I put it there myself.” 

Gandalf reproached gently, turning around and shutting the door so that I wouldn't have the urge to see his handiwork on the other side of my door. His voice settled on my shoulder, the constant presence seeming to push me to face the newcomer. I turned to face him and was surprised by the dwarf that I saw in front of me. I don't even know what I was expecting of the last guest, his dark hair threaded with silver and blue eyes that merely regarded me with only barely earned acknowledgment.

“Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield.” 

Gandalf motioned to the dwarf in front of me whose stance was strong and his gaze cold, looking at me from top to bottom to assessing what he saw and almost smirking in a kind of amusement. I only stepped a little closer, wondering if I was supposed to shake his hand or if he was supposed to offer me his service as the others had done. Thorin just stood there next to Fili and Kili, one of his hands resting lightly on top of his sword's hilt.

He took a step towards me to face me entirely, giving me his sole attention with those focused blue eyes of his, “So, this is the hobbit.”

I clenched my skirt and curled my toes; a whisper of a feeling it should have been but a stroke of fingers trailing down my back in a languid pace that stopped when his voice did. My face was surprised and flushed, I knew that it was but I couldn't help it as the touch disappeared. He stepped around me, his tone easily saying my name as if were already knew each other; I expected his voice to return to my back with a different intensity but the touch was different, trailing like a single finger along my side. 

When Thorin asked me if I had done much fighting, I felt my eyes flutter because the trail of fingers burned up my arm before wisping away. ”Axe or sword,” he asked, the deep surety of his words sliding across my skin that made my breath hitch. I couldn't focus my thoughts enough to respond to his question because his voice was just so intoxicating. “What's your weapon of choice?”

At that question I had to look away and clench my skirt tighter, the trail of his voice leading along the inside of my thigh with such weight until it too disappeared. I sighed in forced restraint, flushed and needing fresh air. How ironic when Thorin asked me such a question that his own voice would be a weapon in and of itself. 

Had I the breath for it, I would have answered that one did not need a weapon, Thorin Oakenshield, if they knew what voices could do to others. 

His voice left me weakened, heated in a way I was unused to before this night when I had never known that voices could do such things as try to seduce. I tried to clear my thoughts but his eyes bore into mine and the longer they did, the more my knuckles clenched white with repressed urge. I was relieved when he took my silence for answer enough. 

“Thought as much.” He chuckled, his voice trailing along the soft skin of my shoulder, “She looks more like a grocer than a burglar.” The touch continued along my collar bone and dipped lower before it vanished again. Everyone seemed to ease up at the comment, laughing and smiling at Thorin's assessment before he made to leave back towards the dining room where the feast had been set up earlier, the others trailing behind him.

Gandalf and I were left to wait until everyone filed out together, intent on following their leader so that he could get some food. 

Finally free of Thorin's presence and his voice, I let the breath I had been holding out, gulping down air greedily even as I loosened the grip on my skirt. My fingers were sore from how tightly they bunched my skirt and I soothed them before looking back at Gandalf. He kept his own smile and appearance up but only until Thorin disappeared from sight; he leaned against the door frame, his own breath coming out in short huffs before looking at me.

Why did we both look so relieved?


	6. Also a Took

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even a Took can sometimes need some convincing to go off on adventures.

I just wanted to sit down and be quiet for a bit without anyone bothering me or talking within my hearing range. I needed that and if anyone wouldn't allow me that small courtesy, I was going to scream just to drown it all out.

It all had started simply enough with Thorin sitting down at the table and waiting for something to be placed in front of him. Apparently, I was the only one who was left out of that conversation when it was decided that I should be the one to cook him something to eat with what remained of my larder. With a bowl of soup set down before him, he seemed to ease up a little (was he just that hungry?) and nodded to the bowl in a show of deeming it acceptable before shooing me off. Damn Thorin and his damn quest and everything that came from that. 

I was thankful enough that he didn't say anything in thanks and even more thankful enough that none of the dwarves seemed particularly inclined to include me at the table once they started to discuss what exactly they were doing in my house in the first place. 

A quest. Yes, the aforementioned adventure that Gandalf dangled in front of me the day before like some sort of enticement that I was eager to grab at. I was curious enough now that they were in my house and helped them with what I could -mostly holding a candle- but as I listened, Gandalf explained in that steady voice of his that they were to go to a place called the Lonely Mountain. 

I felt my stomach drop again for the third time since waking back up from when I fainted. 

Smaug, the Terrible. 

Where Gandalf wanted me to go there would be a dragon and no, Bofur I did not need it spelled out so perfectly exact what a dragon was. 

I needed air all over again. 

I clutched my cup of tea and didn't move an inch, sure that once I did everyone would start talking to me or loud enough that I would hear.

I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that Gandalf somehow managed to convince all of them that I was a burglar but also that Thorin agreed to trust the wizard enough to let me join the quest. I didn't want to join the quest. I was a proper – I sighed and clutched my cup. I was terrified of the idea of these dwarves even thinking of me going anywhere near a dragon.

...and that contract. 

I groaned with just the thought of that long winded and complicated contract staring back at me from the side table. How I reacted was quite normal for any Hobbit; the idea of being lacerated and incinerated was just too much. It was all too much.

I needed to clear my thoughts and stop thinking about such things. I would give myself nightmares for weeks if I didn't let up a little about the dragon thing.

I needed air. I didn't move an inch.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard someone coming into the sitting room, their footsteps loud so that I would easily notice their presence. I turned to see Gandalf, his tall body hunched as he moved underneath the low ceiling of the hobbit hole, looking at me with concern painted so clearly across his features. 

“I'll be alright just let me sit quietly for a moment.”

“You've been sitting quietly for far too long!”

Gandalf huffed out and really right then I had half a mind to tell him that I was in no mood for any of his shenanigans! To even think of bringing me on the quest where a _dragon_ of all things would be waiting for me was just simply the craziest thing anyone had ever suggested to me! For all that I tried to tell myself that I was just a Baggins, I was a Took as well and I was in no way limited in crazy suggestions from my Took sided cousins. A dragon though? A _dragon_! I couldn't even process that sort of idea! 

Gandalf seemed to understand exactly was I thinking, his eyes softening only a little before he came to sit across from me, “Tell me, when did doilies and your mother's dishes become so important to you?” 

They didn't try to incinerate me, thank you very much!

“I remember a young hobbit, who was always running off in search of elves in the woods. Who'd stay out late and come home after dark trailing mud and twigs and fireflies.”

As I listened to him tell me of how I was when I was a wee Hobbit, I couldn't help but lower my eyes and allow his voice to rush over me. I felt the presence of his voice on my shoulder pressing against me firmly to have me understand that it was safe where I was. I remembered that I did used to go out and into the forest and try and hide so that maybe an elf could be happened upon if lucky. I smiled at the thought of one of my adventures that had me out late, covered in mud and gunk, and looking every bit the adventuring hobbit until a Ranger spotted me and scooped me up.

I remember how my Mum felt, how warm she was and how her voice tickled when she accepted me into her arms, grateful to the Ranger who found me and brought me home and looked too thin so in gratitude, please come in and eat with us.

Gandalf looked at me as if he knew every single thought that came through my mind; his voice only helped it along, “A young hobbit who would've liked nothing better than to find out what was beyond the borders of the Shire.”

His eyes locked with mine, ”The world is not in your books and maps. It's out there.”

I turned my head to look at the darkened window where the world truly did lie just outside its pane. As a Took child, I had wanted nothing more than the desire to fight my way upstream and run around and adventure as I pleased. My maps and books were my ways of doing that as a Baggins adult but everything in those things were just old stories. Nothing more.

“I can't just go running off into the blue!” I began,my voice straining with the effort to keep myself from shouting, “ I'm a Baggins of Bag End.” I squeaked with the declaration because as much as I wanted to believe that I was just a proper Hobbit lass and an even more proper Baggins of Bag End, I was not just that. I was a Took. 

“Yes, you are also a Took!”

I listened to Gandalf tell me the story of my great-grand-Uncle Bulroarer Took who was supposedly tall enough to ride a normal horse and how he fought in his great war and somehow managed to take the Goblin King's head off while at the same time inventing the game of golf. 

I smiled and Gandalf knew he was winning me over, “I do believe you made that up.”

Gandalf grinned at me in that knowing way of his before I sighed and stood up, “I'm sorry, Gandalf, but I can't sign that.”

The words felt bitter in my mouth and heavy in my stomach but I had to say them for Gandalf to understand exactly just how much I couldn't go on this adventure. I was indeed a Baggins of Bag End and I was a proper Hobbit lass and I couldn't be just up and running off into the sunset. Despite the fact that I couldn't be the company's burglar, I would at least be their proper host and set them all up on what beds and comfortable cushions that I could. Bag End was very large, after all and was designed for a rather large family. Yes, that was something that I could do.

I set my mind to the task of doing as such, brushing off with my fingers the sound of Balin's voice on my cheek when I heard him say behind me, “It appears we have lost our burglar.”

As I readied beds, fluffed pillows, and pushed together soft chairs and ottomans to provide as many sleeping spots as my home could handle, I lost myself in my thoughts and didn't notice until I came up closer to the sitting room that I was hearing singing again. I slowly made my way along the wall, careful not to disrupt anyone with my presence; as I neared, the deep lilted song hummed across the walls of the room, the echoing sadness and longing of the lyrics resonating in me. 

I was shocked to find that unlike when the dwarves sang before and it was a cacophonous nightmare of sensation, with Thorin's voice at the lead it seemed to only command the company's into a sense of order. Sensations rushed over me in a soft tide, pushing at my shoulder gently, smoothing over my soft cheeks, rubbing along my belly, softening over hands and cupping possessively. I closed my eyes to the sensations, letting them wash over me and I realized as I listened to them and allowed their voices to hold me that I fell in love with the beautiful things that the dwarves searched ever for in the darkness. 

I felt that fierce and jealous love that came with their possession, their voices anchoring me in place until I understood that I wanted to -and desperately needed to- run along the fields of tall green grass with them. I wanted to play around in the cold stream and hear the soft sway of the pine trees as they rustled in the wind. I wanted to see the bright stars of the sky as I slept on the ground, surrounded by those voices. 

I wanted to see them through their quest.

When I opened my eyes, I found Thorin staring at me with an emotion behind his eyes that told me that he knew exactly what I was thinking. My heart raced with the thought of this overwhelming dwarf knowing what I was thinking and I breathed in deeply before walking away. 

I had more beds to set up, after all.

Away from their voices that had stopped singing, I was broken from the spell that just moments before I was so powerless against. I didn't quite understand where the reaction had come from but maybe I was just tired and needed to rest? Yes, that would set me right again. Just go to bed early tonight and wake up tomorrow and see to the dwarves' departure. Maybe even make them a little breakfast? Once they left, all would be right in the world again.

When the last of the beds was readied, I sighed and turned around, tired and ready to head off to bed. I stopped as soon as I saw Thorin standing in the way of the door, his form made bulky from his armor and his fur trimmed coat that he hadn't taken off despite the comforts of my home. His eyes were hard as they stared at me, his face unreadable and I flinched back when he took a step towards me. There was something about the way he looked at me then, once again assessing what to make of me; he could tell I wasn't afraid of him for what did I really have to fear from such a dwarf as he but he still wondered. 

His face still blank and his blue eyes still locked onto mine, he approached me until I had to look up at him. I felt my heart hammer in my chest with him so near, remembering what his voice could do to me should he just open his mouth and speak. At such a close distance and with nothing to distract him, he would probably see exactly what it did to me. 

“Where are you going?”

He said it in such a way that I immediately knew that he had known what I was thinking when I listened to them singing. My breath hitched as his voice traced along my abdomen, a single touch that trailed until gone. 

“Bed,” I tried to sound cheerful and sound ready for sleep but the voice that came out was a far cry from it, “Early start for you guys. I will give you a good breakfast before you go, of course.”

Thorin came closer still but I couldn't move away from him even as he closed the distance between our bodies. I could very nearly feel the heat radiating off him; his eyes traced along an exposed collar bone, a short tendril of honey colored hair that lay against my shoulder before he hummed low in this throat in protest to my statement.

I shuddered with want, my body coming alive with flame as his voice curled along my thighs hard enough to grip had it been real. I tried to restrain my body's natural reaction to move, to flinch or twitch or give any sort of sign to alert Thorin to what he was truly doing to me. I couldn't deny that I was wet with desire, a slickness between my thighs that probably could be scented if Thorin were to lean closer.

“Before _we_ go, I suppose you mean,” Thorin let rumble from his lips, “Are you not the burglar?”

His words while not possessive squeezed flesh and trembled into wet folds, pressing in deep and almost filling me until the touch was gone with the last of his question. I wanted to answer him but my cheeks were too red, too flushed and my heart racing too noticeably. His eyes stared at my chest, noticing all too clearly the thump of its rhythm; he leaned forward and breathed in deeply.

I backed away from him, the spell broken and nervously smoothed my skirts even as I gave him a large birth of space, sputtering and trying desperately to keep my eyes on the ground so that I wouldn't embarrass myself further than I already had. I had to leave the room immediately. 

At the doorway, I grabbed at the frame when his voice stroked across my desire and left me weak, “I'll see you in the morning, hobbit.”

I turned back only to acknowledge what he said, nodding slightly before taking off for my bedroom and slamming the door. 

I slept with uncomfortable dreams, of mountains and fire and a haunting pile of gold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Finally some steamy goodness!!


	7. The Road Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and the company are finally off!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thrimidge - April in Hobbit calender

When I awoke the next day, I knew that I slept far later than I usually did; the sun was brightly shining through my window and my bedroom was heated with the Thrimidge sun. I groaned from the puffiness of eyes that hadn't slept deeply enough and rolled over again before burrowing deeper into my blankets.

The dwarves!

My eyes snapped open and I popped out of bed, looking in vain for a dressing robe that was still out in the main hallway. Remembering where it was, I cursed and debated for a second before just rushing out into the hallway in my night chemise and going straight for the robe. The silence in the house stopped me as soon as I got a few steps out into the hall; I strained my eyes to listen for any sounds that were out of place. Any clanking of pots or pans, cutlery being abused or even the smell of tea wafting in the air gently...

But there was nothing. Nothing at all. 

I hesitated before making my way through my hobbit hole, looking into rooms where dwarf beds had been set up and were abandoned come morning. Nothing was put away, blankets and pillows lying about disheveled and without care. The thought should have been frustrating, and in a way it was, but I couldn't bring myself to want to mentally chastise the dwarves. I tip-toed through the hallways, peeking into more rooms and going into the sitting room and in one painfully clear moment, I realized that I was alone in the hobbit hole. 

There was no sign of the sly wizard, Gandalf. No sense of his protective presence around me, egging me along to join in whatever merriment he believed was happening. All of the dwarves were gone too. The rowdiness taken with them, leaving a hobbit hole as unmade and improper as could possibly be but yet lacking all sense of discord.

Worse yet, I realized, their voices were gone.

I should have been happy. I should have been jumping with glee and parading around in my skivvies only too glad to be rid of them and yet, I couldn't muster the energy to do such a thing. The very thought that all of that torture yesterday was gone and never to return – for indeed their quest was very long and dangerous – and yet, I just couldn't stomach the idea of them leaving and never hearing their unique voices again.

What had I been thinking the night before?

I dashed for my study, grabbing a travelling bag and ran back into my room. I jumped over displaced chairs and thrust open my closet door, shoving in changes of chemise shifts and shirts. The night shift I wore was unceremoniously packed into the bag too and I tugged down a shorter sleeved shift over my head before tossing my bag aside. 

I was going to be travelling so I needed my bloomers and a lighter petticoat (I was still a proper lass, after all!) and I stepped into those, laces taking entirely too long in fumbling fingers. A golden skirt easily buttoned into place and a shirt tucked in, barely buttoned before I pulled a green vest from my drawer. I cursed at just how many buttons I had to deal with, leaning over to rummage through my closet until I found my red coat. As I left the room, I grabbed a yellow ascot ribbon and my bag and hurried off to the kitchen for provisions. 

I only had a little time to pack some light foods, shoving apples, breads, cookies, and dried meats that would keep before I raced back into my sitting room for my pipe and pipeweed. Once those two very precious items were shoved into my bag carefully, I dashed away back down the hallway. I was a flurry of skirts and fabric, bouncing from one room to another in the hopes that I wasn't forgetting anything. 

As a final seal of approval for the adventure I was going on, I stopped in my study and grabbed a bottle of ink and a quill and went over to the contract that still lay so innocently on the side table. I signed it with a flourish, my name so contentedly staring up at me from below the names of Thorin and Balin before I blew on it so the ink would dry.

I left Bag End without much thought at all as to what would happen to it if I were not there and locked the door behind me. As soon as I was outside able to see the bright blue sky and the clouds overhead, I smiled because it was a very good morning; or, at least that was what my feet told me as I raced down dirt paths and grassy hillsides, the soft dirt helping me jump over fences and pumpkins alike. 

Over gardens and passed people, bumping into a few of them with a hasty apology, I laughed and smiled and ran as hard and fast as my legs could carry me. I was a Took again, skirts flying in the air around me as I jumped over fences and cut through the fields of Hobbiton instead of taking the pathways. It was all so improper, the feeling of soft tilled earth beneath my feet that had no business being stepped on in such a way but it felt amazing. 

“Hey! Miss Bilbo! Where are you off to?”

Hamfast Gamgee was busy toiling away in his own garden when he probably heard me first and then saw the sight of a hobbit lass, who was far too old to be bursting out from bushes, come into view. The look of astonishment on his face was enough for me to burst out in giggles as I hurried on by, careful to at least not step on his garden. I laughed loudly at the feeling of his fingers tickling my sides just as they used to when I was a little girl and threw him my keys in passing, “Can't stop! Already late! I'm going on an adventure!!”

I ran out of the borders of Hobbiton, feeling the slight burn in my lungs as I raced ever onward along the path that would eventually house the familiar sight of thirteen dwarves and a one very tall wizard. I was already so very late and they would most likely be very far in the distance if their talk of ponies from the night before were any indication of how far they could travel in a few hours. I was lucky enough to have slept late but not much later than I usually did; any later and they would have been almost too far to follow behind. 

There were little things about the Shire that were convenient even to folk who were not Hobbits and a limited number of paths leading to the main roads into the wilds was one of them. I knew exactly where they would be going in the long run and by the size of their company, I guessed which path would easily afford them. I urged my feet to go faster, the contract blowing in the wind as I jumped over large rocks in my way and stumbled in mud when I was caught unaware. 

I couldn't believe even as I ducked under low hanging tree branches and hopped over bushes alike that I was actually going on an adventure just as Gandalf asked me to just days previous! I actually thought him mad when he asked, so repelled by the idea that I very nearly yelled at him to stop joking with me. 

I couldn't even imagine the sight I must make now, kicking up dust and grass in a bustle of fabrics and hair that would undoubtedly look awful when I finally stopped. 

I had to see them again. I had to see the dwarves again. I did not know any of them by any means but their voices and the effect they had on me was something that I couldn't ignore. Since the death of my parents, so much of my world just seemed to drift on by but with their arrival, everything was coming back. 

The very wind rushing by ears filled my mouth with a cool sensation as it hadn't done in years and the trickle of the nearby streams chilled my hands in a soft flow. So many years long gone since the most mundane of sounds seemed so fresh to me. 

No, I couldn't just let this chance of seeing and exploring the very world pass me by, not if it had sounds the likes of which I never before heard.

Speaking of which... what was that tickling sensation in my nose?

I rubbed my nose out of habit, gasping in surprise when the contract I held smacked me in the face none too gently. It flailed in the wind as I tried to fight it back, the long length protesting to its treatment and smacking me again like it was some dastardly foe trying to kill me! 

As soon as I got the contract back under control, I thought I saw something in the distance. I squinted just to be sure and when I was exactly sure of what I saw ahead of me, I felt silly for allowing the sight of rude, somewhat smelly dwarves to make my heart skip a beat at the sight of them. I couldn't help but smile when I saw their bulky forms atop ponies, their cloaks and furs standing out starkly from the green forests of the Shire. I urged my feet to go faster, ignoring how my calves burned with protest at the treatment, slowly inching up behind the large company of one Thorin Oakenshield. 

The loud sound of the collective hooves of the ponies was what I heard before, my nose once again tickling before I brushed off the sensation. Even from this distance, I could make out Kili's laughter in a faint tug at my bottom and Dwalin guffawing over something one of the brothers said. The forest echoed their voices around, the sensations slight as they bounced off of my body. 

“Wait!” I called, hoping for them to hear me so that I didn't have to keep on running behind them. My feet were getting tired and never had I run so hard in my entire life, “Wait!!”

Gandalf seemed to hear me and indeed as did the others; they were slowing, urging their ponies to stop and turn to see what was happening behind them. Some of them recognized my voice, I could tell from the look of surprise and amazement on their faces even as I urged my feet onward and started to trail to a stop in a loud huff. 

I held up the contract, happier than anything that I had finally caught up with the group. “I signed it!” I exclaimed excitedly, instantly berating myself because of how like a little child wanting to be praised it made me sound. I went closer to let Balin inspect the document, hoping everything was alright or if I still needed to do anything else to validate it. I smiled at the elderly dwarf, inching away when his pony stared at me a little too much. 

Everyone was just waiting for Balin to give his confirmation or send me on my way; I chanced it, a glance at Thorin who still sat so straight on his pony, his hard gaze looking down at me from his fuzzy pony like he was both a little surprised by my appearance and a little exasperated. I was sure he wanted nothing more than for me to just head on back to where I came from but nope, I was here. I had signed the contract. I grinned at him before Balin's voice poked at my cheek, “Everything appears to be in order.”

Everyone relaxed and some even grinned at one another, “Welcome, Miss Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield.”

I giggled in excitement, the very prospect of the adventure now suddenly more real than it had even been while I raced outside the borders of Hobbiton. I was a Took now more than ever, ready to begin my long journey and see the world- 

“Give her a pony.”

Thorin's voice always so sensual before roughed along my back like a bark against the skin, hitting heavily and making me stumble forward a little.

I would have thought over what the change meant if I hadn't exactly heard his command, the warmth from my cheeks draining instantly at the instruction. I was not a Took anymore. I was a Baggins of Bag End and we did not ride ponies! I backed away from Balin's pony with its creepy wet mouth that tried to nip at me and tried to keep the look off my face that indicated that I thought they smelled quite foul. 

No, I couldn't ride one of these horrid beasts! I was not going to be forced into it either! I was a part of this company and I would not be bullied into riding any foul creature that I didn't want to! Ponies were disgusting and very large and one of them just farted so I felt that just quite accurately took care of why I did not like ponies in the slightest. 

No, I was a proper Hobbit lass and I would do no such thing, “NO! No no, that won't be necessary!”

“I'm a prop-- sure I can keep up on foot! I've done my fair share of walking holidays!”

I tried to protest Thorin's command, tried to make him see reason and the folly of putting me on a pony. Hairy beasts that farted and pooped the way they did had no business being ridden by a hobbit lass. There were none even equipped with a side saddle for such things! I couldn't even fathom the idea of explaining _that_ one to the company of male dwarves but as soon as I even attempted, a yelped escape my mouth. I was horrified by the sound I made, realizing at once from the pressure on my jacket that Fili and Kili had actually lifted me up! _LIFTED_ me up from the ground as if I were so insignificant!

I squeaked in protest to the treatment, blushing madly as Fili caught sight of the ruffle of my bloomers and raised an eyebrow at me. They waited until a pony walked forward and deposited me like a sack of potatoes in the seat, watching me as I bumbled around in the saddle, fixing skirts and shoving fabric down to cover everything that was indecent.

What was I thinking going on such an adventure?! Was I even really thinking!?

I grabbed the reins that Fili offered to me, turning red when Kili's laughter erupted from my other side and squeezed affectionately at the skin. Soon enough Gandalf was beside me, keeping an eye on me as I tried to get used to the fact that I was on a pony and actually riding like a male would, my skirts all bunched up in the saddle despite all my best efforts. 

My pony reared its head and neighed at me for whatever reason, I wasn't sure, but I flinched back sure as all things sacred that it was going to kill me. The pony was actually going to kill me! Murder me and leave me in some back alleyway behind some seedy tavern, I was sure of it! Gandalf was looking at me like I was quite the funny sight, a grin almost hidden by his beard that instantly caught my attention. He was going to be the accomplice, I knew! He and the pony were both going to kill me, possibly even eat me! I just wasn't sure anymore. 

I wanted to go home; and I wanted to get down from the pony!

“Come on, Nori, pay up!”

Oin's voice played inside my ear and I barely had a moment to process that he had even spoken before Nori turned around in his saddle and threw a pouch of money into the waiting hand.

“What's that about?”

The sound of the hooves made my nose tickle unpleasantly and the tickling itch in my hair from my own voice poked at me as I asked Gandalf this question; he just shrugged in that manner that was so like him and smiled gently, “Oh, they took wagers on whether or not you'd turn up.”

Another pouch was tossed behind us, this time being caught by Fili; my eyebrow raised in question only to be answered with a grin shared by both brothers.

“Most of them bet that you wouldn't.”

I nodded almost unconsciously, agreeing that it seemed to make sense that I wouldn't show up. Gandalf had that gleam in his eye and a grin on his lips though that made me curious to know what he thought on the subject. Did he trust in his instincts or did he assume he had been wrong about me?

“What did you think?”

Only a second passed, a slight hum in his throat and a pressing weight on my shoulder before a pouch of coins was tossed back to be caught by him. 

“My dear girl, I never doubted you for a second.”

The tickle in my nose continued, insistent now. 

I almost chuckled at the sentiment that was expressed for Gandalf always did seem to know how things would turn out in the end. His position on whether or not I would turn up was probably why Oin and the some of the other members even bothered to bet otherwise... still, that didn't really explain why Fili and not Kili bet that I would show up...

The persistent itch in my nose finally escalated and I couldn't prevent it anymore, a loud sneeze coming from me that nearly shook my whole body. Gandalf looked at me in question, “Horse hooves...” I began to explain, knowing that I could say aloud what triggered my sneeze since Gandalf already knew about my Ear Touch sense. I was about to tell him too but as I dug into my pockets for my handkerchief, I realized with quite keenly felt horror that I couldn't find my handkerchief. 

Did the pony eat it when I wasn't paying attention?!

No no no! My handkerchief was nowhere to be found! Had I not even brought it!? I made sure to pack everything and though even I can admit that I had not done the most thorough of double checks before I left Bag End... to just forget my handkerchief was... ABSURB! 

Wait wait!” I panicked, raising my hand to let Thorin understand my plight, ”Stop! Stop! We have to turn around!”

I noticed that I was acknowledged enough in the company to warrant a full stop, Thorin turning his pony to see what was the matter. Gandalf beside me was a little less patient about the stop, huffing at me with barely concealed exasperation, “What on earth is the matter?”

“I forgot my handkerchief!!”

The group relaxed, chuckling at the display that I was making. Did none of them understand the importance of having a pocket handkerchief for when they sneezed or when things got sticky and messy out in the woods?! 

“Here, use this!”

The tickle of my feet made me flinch and start to laugh but I forced the urge down and watched in utter alarm when Bofur actually tore a piece of his outer coat off and threw it back to me. I caught it out of reflex alone but immediately wished I hadn't. 

It was disgusting. 

It smelled a little, was grimy with dirt and horse hair, and why was it a little wet? I sniffed it just out of caution and heard Thorin's voice bark up ahead to move on. 

I looked at Gandalf, who just shook his head at me with a smile on his face, almost as if he weren't sure what to make of me. I just looked at him as if he were insane. Why would anyone want to go on adventures if murderous ponies and disgusting handkerchiefs were one of the main staples?

I wanted to go home.


	8. King to Command all his Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first night of adventuring and the tale of Moria...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah! I really didn't like writing this chapter! 
> 
> In the book this scene never happens and it's just Hollywood nonsense in the movie....

I tried to will myself to sleep, desperately attempting to soothe the heavy sensations seeping into my skin despite all my best efforts to dismiss them. I adjusted a little, groaning about the flat patch of ground and how it provided so very little comfort. My back ached terribly from long hours of sitting on the pony, ramrod straight and tense for far too long before I was teased about my bad form and how it would hurt by that night.

Oh, how it did hurt so very much. Every breath in my body hurt my back and thighs and all I wanted was sleep just to ease it, if only for a little bit. 

Not that physical discomfort was the only thing bothering me; in all the time we traveled, I hadn't spoken a single word. I was silent during the long hours riding on a pony through lands still inhabited by tall folk. They gave way to lands where people spoke strangely and sang songs that I couldn't understand. Still not a word. 

The Company stopped only for meals, eating as often as the tall folk would consider normal but no where near as many times as a hobbit would eat. Having not eaten breakfast, my belly grumbled its displeasure and the company teased me still until we set off again.

Through slopes of rock and dreary hill, we finally came to the open wilds that as a hobbit I had never known before; the trees were gloomy, twisting upwards as if they were broken and snarled. No leaves grew on them and I found myself looking to Gandalf for reassurance. 

For a company made up of dwarves who were used to travelling out in the wilds, the first day was the easiest for them. They laughed and joked with one another as if they were all a family and seemed content to ignore me except for when we stopped for meals. Dori, Ori, and Nori were the first to really try and befriend me, all of us sharing a great love of meal times as often as possible but even then, we did not converse much.

The irony was not lost on me when my would-be murderer became my best friend, nipping playfully at me once Dwalin and Kili removed some of her load to allow her a lighter ride. Myrtle was her name, I was told, and she was quite the cheeky thing if one allowed her to be. She stole food from bags when dwarves were turned and decided to knock over the stray dwarf who would manage to catch her in the act.

Despite having made a friend in my pony, I was relieved when we stopped for camp the first night. I was tired and lonely in a way I was so unused to being surrounded by so many. Of course that really did nothing after the food was done and settled in my belly and everyone grouped off to talk about whatever they did and I was left to my own devices. I sat around Gandalf, smoking my pipe and blowing rings with him in the air around our heads, chuckling when he made amazing shapes. 

Sounds from the hills were all around us, echoing off boulders and wood alike; they screeched in my ears, pressed on limbs, curled my fingers and made my teeth ache. On one occasion, my tongue felt almost like something was pulling at it.

The wilds were full of strange things that made all manner of strange sounds and Gandalf did his best to tell me what each sensation belonged to. I would hear something, look at him and describe it and he would reply with whatever it was. Apparently even a gentle animal like a squirrel was responsible for making one's teeth cringe in an unpleasant manner. We spoke low, whispering of these things to one another, almost as if it were a great secret even though it was not.

Snoring was not a sensation I could get used to no matter how long or how loud it was heard. Oh, it had been identified hours ago, no thanks to Gloin, but just the weight of it was uncomfortable, no matter the tone. It settled on my chest like someone was pushing down and as it continued long into the night, I fretted and turned and just could not sleep. 

I was tired of even attempting to sleep. 

I got up from the bedroll Dwalin had given to me earlier when we first stopped for lunch and stretched, popping my back and groaning when the ache only lessened slightly. It was still relatively early in terms of night fall but the journey claimed a good chunk of the group for sleep. Fili and Kili sat close to the fire, packing their pipes and smoking, enjoying the brisk air while they were also warmed by the flame. Thorin sat off to the side, back against the rock with his eyes closed.

Thorin was an altogether different mess of a matter when it came to this journey. 

Memories of the night before flashed in mind and I blushed at the effect his voice still had on me even just in recollection. 

I grabbed an apple from my bag for Myrtle, sighing even as I tried to wrap my thoughts around our most esteemed but stoic leader. Why did he have a voice like that and why did it seem to change so much? A trace of fingers that lingered one moment and then the next like a pat on the back. Tone for each voice always affected a sensation and how it acted but his warped so acutely from so small a change.

“Hey Myrtle,” I smiled at the pony, threading my fingers in her mane and scratching deeply, “I've got a present for you. It'll be our little secret, okay?” I offered up the apple to her, happy when she quickly chewed it to make easy work of it.

A loud screeching sound interrupted my stolen moment with Myrtle, echoing in the night from seemingly everywhere and I winced; sharp like a knife it struck across my right palm and I dropped the apple in momentary pain. I looked around in a fright, wondering what could make such a horrid sound, “What was that?”

I scampered back towards the fire of the camp, hoping that Kili or Fili could answer my question, hoping that they knew enough about the calls of the wild to know exactly what could produce such an awful sound.

Kili looked at me with his pipe still in hand, no longer attempting to pack in some pipeweed; his dark eyes were serious as they found mine, a frown on his face. He looked worried and cautious, “Orcs.”

My eyes widened in shock at the severity of his answer but something felt off about it. His voice curled at my rear teasingly, “Orcs!?”

In my fright, I squeaked a little too loudly in the near calm of the night, noticing with a wince that Thorin sat up from his place against the wall. He looked alert and ready for whatever might come and it filled me with the fear that maybe something really was going to be wrong. 

“Throat-cutters. They'll be dozens of them out there.” Fili started to explain, “The Lone-lands will be crawling with them.” There was that strange wisp of vocal sensation again this time in Fili's voice; there was something about his tone that was just as Kili's had been. As he spoke, the voice curled lightly. It made the possibility of the sound being an orc just seem less likely.

“They strike in the wee small hours when everyone's asleep quick and quiet,” Yet their words sounded so serious; I was torn between wanting to trust their words but just as I felt compelled to let the fear well back up, their voices teased at me so playfully that I couldn't focus enough to, “ No screams. Just lots of blood.” 

Such a serious answer shouldn't have teased so playfully, cupping and hinting suggestively of what could follow...

“You think that's funny?” Thorin's deep voice cut across the night, twisting up my arm in a firming hold that left me still and unable to move. It felt cutting and reminded me so much of the times when I misbehaved as a little girl and my Mom dragged me back by the arm to Bag End for proper punishment. “You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?”

I looked at Fili and Kili again and saw that the looks on their faces were one of chastised children, their eyes lowered and a shame behind their eyes. I knew at once from both their faces and Thorin's tone that they had been teasing me, pulling me along just because I was the naïve hobbit when it came to the wild.

I swallowed down a sense of shame for being so easily tricked and looked away from the towering figure of Thorin as he walked away from the group, a reprimand on his tongue to answer whatever Kili said to him.

“Don't mind him laddie; Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs..."

Balin's soothing voice cupped along my cheek in a way that made the feeling of shame ebb, gentle and kind the way a parent's would be. He began to vocalize to the brothers and I of the story of Moria and how King Thror had once tried to reclaim it so many years past. 

I sat down near the edge of the campfire and listened to Balin as he recounted of the legions of orcs that ravaged their ancient halls, that slew hundreds of their fellow dwarf in the course of the war.

As I listened, I imagined a King I did not know fighting to reclaim a home and being beheaded by a most vile creature. Of that same creature swearing to wipe out a line that Thorin belonged to. A father gone missing and Thorin, all alone fighting for his life against one who had taken so much. I felt I could understand the power of Thorin's voice and how it commanded; why it changed as it pleased. Balin saw that day that Thorin was a Prince he could follow and call King.

I felt I understood that sentiment, having recalled the power behind Thorin's voice all too clearly the night before as the company sang. My Ear Touch had known what he was before it was said, a King to command all his kind.

Despite all of that, I found myself wondering what happened to the pale orc who seemed so intent to destroy the line of Durin?


	9. Travelling in the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The company continues on their journey, despite the fact that rain will sometimes trouble them from time to time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For people who have noticed that this follows the scenes of the movie (with some Bookverse included), this will replace the scene where Gandalf explains about the wizards.
> 
> I honestly wanted Bilbo to have a bit more interaction with the group.
> 
> ** Sorry as well for the shorter chapter**

Adventuring really was just the most awful thing I had ever done in my entire life. 

I still didn't understand why I rushed out so happy and hopeful. Did I really always think it would be brightly shining stars and green grass even when one had to contend with spring weather?

Oh, the day started out well enough, the company raising early for breakfast and getting a move on soon after. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and Myrtle and I went back to bonding. I rolled in my saddle on the advice of Bofur, feeling just as burly and clumsy as ever but my back was thankful for the advice.

The braiding of my pony's mane was interrupted by Gandalf engaging me in conversation, eager to know what I thought of our adventure so far. It was a simple ploy of his just to pull out a tale or two from me so that I attracted the nearby ears of the dwarves; I was grateful for the help too. I found it hard to strike up a conversation on my own with the dwarves now that I was in the company. More than once, I wondered what the cause of it was. 

When I was their host, they seemed to have no troubles ordering me around and such...

Not that I was wishing for orders but at least when they ordered me around, they spoke to me! 

Still, all of that was the first half of the day and the second half was signified by the pit pattering of spring rain that had been hovering all morning. I was surprised by it at first but then exasperated because after a quick search through my bag, I realized that I hadn't the foresight to think that rain would be a common feature on this journey. I had forgotten a travel cloak that could shield me a little from the rain.

Now I was to be at the mercy of the weather without even a heavier coat to fend off the cold that would chill my bones. The rain was growing heavier as the minutes trickled by, fat and cold on my face and in my hair; I couldn't suppress the grimace at the nasty feeling that crept up my back from the stickiness of my clothing. That strange in-between phase of the rain was always hardest for me. Either be dry or wet, I muttered to Myrtle, the in-between was the worst.

I resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to be miserable, mumbling under my breath of my desire for my warm bed and a warm kettle of tea. 

My pony shifted and slowed a little but I was too distracted and miserable to really guess why she did so. Too quick to be defended against, I was smacked full on with something warm and heavy. I dropped the reins of my pony in shock and panicked, my hands digging into the fabric and pulling it away from my face. I looked around trying to figure out what happened, seeing a few of the nearby dwarves chuckle and laugh at what _they_ at least saw happen. 

I looked down in my arms where the bundle of fabric was and I was surprised by the dark green sight of Dwalin's travel cloak. Dwalin himself was in front of me, looking as if he hadn't thrown anything but once he felt my gaze on him, he turned around to eye me unhappily. He grunted in reply to whatever my gaze tried to pry from him but when I did nothing with the cloak, he growled. My cheek tickled but I shied away from his intimidating appearance. Dwalin adjusted in his saddle and pointed his finger at me before motioning to his neck in a quick strike. 

The color drained from my face. 

Was he trying to kill me?! Was that his signal? Did someone miss that when my body was covered in his cloak that they were supposed to kill me? 

The look on my face must have shown him my exact thoughts because Dwalin was sputtering and grumbling low, a prickling feeling coming across my cheek the longer he did it. After attracting the nearby attention of some others, including the questioning gaze of Thorin, Dwalin looked away and turned to me fully. He motioned again to his neck, moving his fingers in a manner as if he had the cloak again.

“Put that on, laddie. Females and young'ins mix well enough on their own without the rain helpin'.”

“Oi!”

I blushed at just the implication of what Dwalin was suggesting and looked down at my clothing that was beginning to get soaked through. Now the older dwarves did laugh though Kili did his best to defend their youthful honor. I wasted no time wrapping the cloak around my neck and pulling up the hood.

Instantly the relief from the rain came and I shivered under the still warm cloak as I retook my reins in hand and pulled the cloak tighter against my body.

“- besides, Miss Boggins knows that we would never do such a thing!”

Whatever Kili and Dwalin had been talking about, their focus was now entirely on me. When I actually managed to look up, Kili shot me a look that pleaded to agree with them. Not knowing anything that had transpired, I looked around at the various dwarves paying their attentions to me, looking all the more like a trapped mouse.

“Aye, aye,” Dwalin concluded, his voice giving every indication that he would not involve himself on a serious debate on the moral code of the two dwarven brothers. “Now away wit' ye.”

Kili seemed to think that was some form of a victory, shooting me a bright grin and a thumbs up, waiting for me to smile back at him. Once I did though, I almost regretted it. It seemed to be the signal he needed and he pulled back on the reins of his pony so that she slowed to a pace alongside mine. At the same time, I noticed that Fili kicked up the pace of his, flanking my left side.

I was trapped between the two brothers.

I truly was a mouse now. 

“Oh! No need to look so skittish, Miss Boggins!” 

Kili chirped and I flushed at the cupping beneath my skirts, “Baggins, Master Kili. My last name is Baggins...”

“OH!” A pinch, “A common mistake, I'm sure!”

“Never pictured Mister Dwalin as having a soft spot for the wee lasses.”

Fili mused from my other side, his voice distracting me and making me squirm a little in my seat. His blue eyes lazily caught mine before a grin spread on his own face. “I can definitely see why though.”

I flushed and gripped the reins tighter, looking to my front and hoping that the brothers would understand that I would not involve myself in such a conversation. Nor any conversation that directed their voices at me! 

The brothers were silent on both my sides but I could feel their gazes on me, staring and trying to figure out if they offended or if their attention was just unwanted. It wasn't that their attention was unwanted. This truly was the largest group conversation that I had since starting this journey but if Fili and Kili spoke, I knew what their voices would do to me. I couldn't let them see such a thing if I was to come away at all with my dignity intact!

“Miss Baggins,” Kili's voice curled along my butt, soothing and pressing. I looked at him, desperately trying to will away the heat on my cheeks, “I hope we did not offend you last night?”

Kili's eyes was so sincere in their attempt to apologize to me but his voice was just entirely too devilish. I gripped the reins of my pony tighter and attempted to look as if I were trying to get comfortable in my saddle but Kili's voice could hardly be deterred. It curled and grabbed before vanishing altogether. It left me breathless, stoking the flames of desire that I tried to wrestle down. 

“Yes, we truly were only talking in jest.” 

No, not lower! Fili's voice was spurned on by his brother's, picking up exactly where his left off, a sensation not unlike fingers tracing along the meatier flesh of my bum. Their short sentences so to the point only teased me, poking at a dam that was already starting to leak from the night Thorin caught me in his room.

“Exactly! We didn't mean anything by it!”

I felt my brows knit in frustration, my jaw clench at Kili's voice gripping me now, kneading and digging deeply before it too left me. I breathed deeply, agonized over the thought that their voices weren't enough to give me the pleasure that I sought. 

I nodded to them to show that I was listening but my eyes weren't truly seeing them; my eyes lingered over plump lips, golden hair, dark eyes, rough stubble. I licked my lips at the thought of what kissing those lush lips would feel like, rubbing soft skin against rough stubble... 

“So do you forgive us?”

Fili's voice cupped and spread flesh, a groan coming unbidden from my lips as I leaned a little forward in my saddle, wanting both to hide my distress from the brothers but also give in. I wanted desperately for Fili and Kili to tell me a story in the way that they would, one voice switching to the other. I didn't want such short sentences that left me aching and wanting for more.

My groan must have been mistaken for a growl because Kili's voice was concerned again, backing off until it was only a soft rub, “Is there something we can do to make amends?” It was aggravatingly torturous the touch of his voice so hesitant now; my toes curled in need, my knuckles white with restrained want.

“Ask of us anything and we shall try to do so.”

Oh, I would ask that instead of a tale, you tell me an epic about something that would take a _very_ long time to express fully. I would have you tell me jokes so that you'd laugh and I would have you growl low in frustration. I wanted all the differing tones that your voices could give me. I wanted Fili's tone to go lower than it was and I wanted Kili's to again brave itself against my flesh entirely...

I chanced a look at Kili, noting that he looked concerned now more than before and was about to reach over to see if I were alright. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts, sitting up straight and fumbling again in my saddle to try and lessen the arousal that burned low in my belly in an ache that I could not easily will away.

“No! It's quite alright!”

“Well! That _is_ a relief then!”

Kili's bright smile seemed so happy and I responded back with a weak smile of my own, glancing over at Fili whose eyes stared at me with some unreadable emotion hidden behind the baby blues. His eyes raked over my face, staring too deeply at the flush on my cheeks and trailing lower before he remembered himself and locked eyes with me again.

“See, brother, I knew there was hardly a thing to worry about!”

Kili announced with that same giddiness in his voice from before, his smile entirely too bright considering the state of the weather that now surrounded us. 

“Quite so, boys!” I confirmed, clearing my throat with a grin. I needed to get my head back on straight and Fili's thoughtful gaze off of me, “I am hardly as sensitive as everyone believes around here.” A golden eyebrow raised in my direction, “Perhaps you should listen to your brother more often, Fili?”

As soon as I said this, Fili laughed into the chilled air; I almost flinched with how loud it was and immediately noticed how everyone turned back in their saddles to see what had made the young blonde dwarf laugh so uncontrollably. At the same time, Kili blushed a shade of red -quite a becoming color on him, if I must say so myself – and dug around briefly in his bag before he threw what looked to be a biscuit at his older brother.

Fili just laughed harder at the attack but as he laughed, I noticed that in the way he held himself, the way his voice rolled over me, it gave no impression of mocking. The laughter was not in teasing or anything as such either. He was just amused. 

When he calmed down slightly, wiping his eyes and chuckling even as he tried to catch his breath, I noticed that his eyes were bright with glee and a smile on his cheeks.

“Aye, Miss Hobbit, It seems there is much I can learn when watching my brother speak.”


	10. Travelling in the Rain II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I lied. 
> 
> I accidentally wrote another chapter in the rain...
> 
> Roast Mutton is next though!

The cold from the rain was gone. 

Heat was everywhere in the blankets pressed against flushed skin; the pillow was fluffy against my head and my hair framed my cheeks like a whisper. I breathed deeply of the foreign scent on my pillow, a smell like metal and a musk that made me want to bury my nose deeper into the softness.

Serenity and ease of limb covered me completely, my fingers finding it difficult to twist into the sheets. 

I breathed out deeply into the dark room, a shadow of breath upon my skin that tingled pleasantly when it trailed along my stomach. Roughened fingers running along a leg. A deep baritone voice undulating as it whispered against soft skin and a scratch of roughened stubble planting wet kisses along the line of my neck.

I couldn't open my eyes to see, but my body wanted to know who was in my bed.

My breath hitched when thick fingers slid along my stomach, teasing at soft skin...

A weight curling up behind me, a broad chest strong and hard. Burning like a furnace. Underneath the soft fabric of my night shift, callused fingertips grazed flesh, tortuously slow as they glide along the smooth underside of my breast and dipped down to the valley in between.

I squirmed in muscle corded arms, delighting when a soft groan was pulled from behind me. A grip cupping my rear before a strong hand pulled up on the back of my knee. Wetness gathered as I groaned, leaning back and breathing deeply of the hair that smelled of metal and the wild. My legs were being spread, cool air washing over hot moist desire as I wiggled.

A roughened hand stopped me,splayed flat on my belly to keep me in place.

Lips trailed kisses down my stomach, wet and causing goosebumps when a low chuckle stopped at the soft growth of hair between my legs. 

Roughened heavy fingers traced my inner thigh, dipping low and pressing into wet lips. 

I was shaking and shuddering with such teasing ministrations. Sweaty from the press of so much heat around me; hot with how much my desire dripped from my spread thighs.

Curled hair beneath my fingers, pushing pulling wanting and both denying what would give me the most pleasure. 

I wanted. 

The heat around me was so overwhelming; sweat trickled along my neck only to be licked up by the press of a hot tongue.

I needed.

An engulfing sensation as a mouth pressed into slicked desire and a moan silenced with a connection of lips. A callused thumb against my jaw.

A roughened heavy hand holding me still.

I moaned, heavy with need and begged for release. 

A cock starting to press against the ring of muscle and dip inside to my very center...

“SHIT!!”

I gasped as I fell tumbling from my saddle, crashing to the muddy ground with a hard splat that had me looking out in shock. What the fuck was that?!

I looked around, mortified even as I realized that Fili and Kili were both laughing into the saddle of their ponies, hunched over and clutching at their reins. I looked around in a shock, unable to figure out just what had happened!

My mind was in such a whirl that I didn't even even notice when Ori came up beside me, gently helping me up from the disgusting mud with a kind grip. “Are you alright?”

I was thankful that when I landed I was still pretty boneless; nothing except for my pride hurt too badly as I checked over myself to make sure that everything was in working order. My body still felt warm, my cheeks heated with more than just embarrassment. Ori's kind expression just waited for me to answer and I nodded slowly before trying to wipe myself off as best I could.

“What happened?” I asked the dwarf before he could walk away back to his own pony. He looked at me confused for a moment before glancing at Fili and Kili, “You fell off your pony.”

“Obviously, but how?”

“We didn't even know you were sleepin'... Fili 'n Kili were talking to you and then-” Ori motioned with his hands from the horse to the ground and I nodded blearily in response.

“Trouble back there?”

Thorin's voice came like a caress along my arm from amidst the rain. Ori and I both looked to our stony leader and we both shook our heads, not wanting to cause a scene or anything. Thorin's hard gaze just passed from Ori to me before he nodded and turned his pony back around. “Move along, then.” 

As Ori scrambled back to his own pony, I saw Fili and Kili walk up to me, their hoods heavy with rain and looking entirely too pleased with themselves for something I had no clue about. The sudden thought that I said anything in my sleep instantly horrified me, the blush reddening on my cheeks even as they came to my side and patted me on the shoulder. 

As they assured me that every dwarf from time to time would fall asleep and then fall off their ponies and that it was a perfectly natural occurrence, I tried to piece together what even happened on my end. Falling asleep while riding was not something that concerned me but to have such a dream was another matter altogether! 

I was far from the age of a tween and to just have such a dream... I don't even think the sensations that I felt were even normal from one bed partner! The realization that I had a dream where I bedded multiple partners was almost enough to make me blush redder. Hobbits my age didn't have such wild dreams!

It wasn't like I was the hobbit lass the circle of wives gossiped about either! I was no Azaelia Bolger, who gloomily stared at married couples, her eyes heavy with unfilled desires! I was not unfulfilled in bodily desires, no not at all! I would have everyone know that before this adventure I was perfectly fine in the bedroom department; I was rather brilliantly skilled when it came to the application of fingers in solo performance! 

Completely unaware of my internal monologue and just how improper it was, Fili and Kili rambled on about how they saw me fall and how I landed and oh, the look on my face. I should have seen it, they said, laughing hard again. 

“Yeah yeah, I get it.” 

I grumbled, watching as Fili steadied Myrtle by her muzzle straps and waited for Kili to help me onto the tall pony. Kili's eyes positively gleamed at me as he cupped his hands and waited for me to step up into the saddle. The look instantly made me hold myself up straighter for I knew I recognized that glint in his eye! I was not so young a Hobbit that I hadn't recognized such a look in the eyes of my Took cousins, the sight of mischief brewing under the surface. 

I huffed in annoyance for what Fili and Kili were planning for me (or for the part they probably played in my tumble) but as I went to get back into my saddle, I faltered a little when Kili lifted me up too quickly. Off balanced, I reached out for the nearest thing that seemed to be stable and found my fingers full of dark hair and a head pulled tight to my chest.

I didn't want to look down. I just wanted to get back onto my pony and curl up somewhere and die of mortification. 

I didn't want to look down at all.

I relaxed almost the instant I smelled it, the rush of metal and wild and wet that I remembered so vividly from my dream. Kili was horridly still beneath me, held in place by my hands that still held tightly to his wet brunette locks. I felt my flush renew, heat exploding across my chest as I breathed in the intoxicating scent before I remembered myself and leaned away, releasing Kili's hair and setting my hands on his shoulders.

I looked down and saw the glint in his eye, the grin on his face and the red that painted across his own cheeks. “I did not-!” I protested but Kili was already thrusting me up, practically throwing me into the saddle so that I had to grab onto the saddle's horn so as not to fall again. 

“Nope, of course not!”

He was gone from Myrtle's side within the moment, leaving only a confused Fili to look back and forth between the two of us before he too returned to his pony.

Soon enough we caught up with the company again and the brothers and I went back to talking about everything and nothing at all. They mostly spoke of their escapades when they were even younger and more wild than my Took cousins and I told them stories of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. 

As I listened to them tell me a story of how they were caught stealing bread from one of the bakeries, I found myself thinking about the earlier incident where I tumbled. The dream still made me flush at how vivid it had been but what Ori said wasn't lost on me. He hadn't known that I was sleeping because Fili and Kili were talking to me that entire time...

If I had been noticeably sleeping, how could they have been talking to me? Unless they were talking to me despite the fact that I was sleeping... but why would they want to do such a thing?


	11. Roast Mutton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The company take up camp where they're not really supposed to and end up encountering some very nasty business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus this chapter was longer than I wanted it to be.

Day slowly changed into night as we rode on. Regardless of the setting sun, the rain continued on as if it hadn't much care in the world other than the express interest in soaking the company. Soon enough, everyone was as miserable as I felt, mud clinging to me in great globs still and making me cringe uncomfortably. If that weren't enough, the ponies began to smell from their furs becoming soaked and because of an incident earlier concerning a frightened pony, Fili and Kili were in sour moods.

Completely drenched from having to try and wrestle a half drowned pony from a river, the two brothers nearly drowned themselves before Dwalin and Thorin managed to pull them out. With the loss of the pony, a good deal of our food was also lost. Though some of the others complained about it, as a Hobbit who knew the ways of how easily rivers could drown, I tried to reassure the brothers of their efforts. 

With the rain still falling over our heads and the ponies exhausted from tromping through the mud all day, Thorin eased us along the edge of the dilapidated remains of an old house to stop for the night. As we all dismounted from our ponies, I walked on ahead to get a closer look at what had once been a home, noticing how bushes, ferns, and plants had grown around the wooden structure. The roof was a husk of a shell of its former glory, caved in and warped enough to give it a rather sinister look. 

Something faint in the air made my jaw ache...

“Everything alright, Miss Baggins?”

“Huh?” I looked at Balin, grateful for the rush of warmth spread across my cheek, “Yea, just...” The feeling was gone and with it the very thought I had. I smiled at Balin and passed it off as being tired from a long day's journey. As I did so, Gandalf and Thorin had moved underneath the roof of the house and began to speak in animated tones, voices that edged along my senses until I decided to turn away. 

It was awkward watching Gandalf and Thorin argue over something because the group didn't really understand what the wizard was even doing there with us. He apparently never signed a contract nor did he indicate any actual intention to travel all the way to Erebor. It felt strange having to decide between the loyalties of one's Leader and one's wizard. To avoid any sense of responsibility in the matter, I tried to ignore it all by intensely petting Balin's pony.

Yes, intensely ignoring whatever argument was currently happening behind my back. Yes, petting the pony.

Balin looking up sharply made me turn around just in time to see Gandalf turn away from Thorin with a look of frustration, “Everything alright?”

I asked him as he headed our way but continued on as if he hadn't heard me. He looked upset and whatever was said between he and Thorin couldn't have been good if Gandalf was now stomping away, “ Gandalf! Where are you going?”

“To seek the company of the only one around here that has any sense!”

I looked at Balin, who only glanced at me before looking at where Gandalf was huffing off to. Where was he going? It was the middle of the night and it was still raining! How safe could it be away from the protection of the company? 

“And who is that?”

“Myself, Mistress Baggins!”

I winced at the formality of my name, noting that it was the only time that I ever heard such a thing from Gandalf's lips. He was upset, that much was easily deduced from the situation but to just leave! I wanted to run after him to try and make him see reason and the folly of leaving us but the frustration in his voice pushed me back. The guiding sensation was keeping me with the dwarves and there was naught I could do to try and resist it. I ended up just looking at Balin, “Is he coming back?”

The camp was kept busy after that, setting up for the long night ahead and getting the ponies ready for rest – a job given to the brothers – while the rest of us did what we could to try and escape the rain for a bit. The roof was really just as useless as it appeared, barely doing anything at all to shield us from the rain or help Gloin and Oin build a fire. 

Despite the fact that the two older brothers would build a fire out of nearly anything, they couldn't manage to do it that night. They swore and cursed colorful words in Westron and some other guttural language until even Dori had to cover Ori's ears. Eventually we just had to settle in for a hard, rough night with no fire and nothing but a cold stew that tasted as unappetizing as it looked. 

Throughout all this, I worried about Gandalf. No one had spoken a word of him since his departure and it seemed like I was the only one who worried on whether or not he would return at all. My feelings on the subject were written plainly across my face, if not in how I clenched my mud matted skirts. Bofur's voice distracted me with a fresh tickle across my toes, “He's a wizard, Miss Baggins! He does as he chooses.”

“But he's been gone a long time.”

“He'll be back, no worries. Here, do us a favor and take this to the lads.”

I was still worried and no amount of tickling was going to ease the thoughts of what trouble Gandalf could get up to all alone in the dark. Without thinking, I held out my hands and was surprised when he thrust two bowls my way with a bright smile on his face. Bofur meant the request as a means of distraction and I was thankful for it, wanting to be helpful and busy for it all the same.

Where the younger brothers were watching the ponies was a bit separated from the main company and I hurried back there under the protection of the forest where I was happy to feel that the rain barely trickled through the thick foliage. Quickly I found them at the head of the pack of ponies, their eyes scanning the group and joking about something before Kili jabbed at Fili's side with a snort. 

“Glad to see you two in a better mood.” I smiled at the two brothers as they looked down at me, their grins still present on their cheeks. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.” Kili responded a little too quickly but before I could try and figure out what was wrong, I felt a warmth behind me. I startled a little, careful not to up end the bowls that still held the stew, “We're happy that you seem to be in a better mood too.”

Fili's voice was underneath my skirts pressing insistently and I tried to move away from him to give myself some space but before I even got an inch, Kili was blocking my path. I was effectively caged between two dwarven brothers who seemed to radiate heat like a furnace regardless of the chill of the night air.

“Um, food?”

I offered to try and distract them, to try and get a moment where I could slip away but even with bowls of food acting as a barrier between us, I felt a hand along my waist. I yelped out in surprise and jumped away because that was an actual real hand on my waist! What was going on?! Was I dreaming again?!

My heart raced as I watched them approach me, slow like I was a skittish creature and I was not at all offended by their behavior. I _was_ skittish and I _was_ about to run off and scream for Dwalin, who was only too correct about young lads and what happened to women who wore wet clothes around them. It wasn't even as if I wanted to spur them on but wasn't there protocol... there was courting, right?! There had to be something of such equivalents in dwarven culture!

I did the only thing that I could think of in such times of need.

I offered food.

“Now, boys; Bofur asked me to bring you your food. That's all.”

I held out the bowls for them to take and just as suddenly as their new behavior, they seemed to change back into the old mischief makers. Their postures relaxed and their smirks went back into normal grins, looking as if they were almost relieved at the mix up. I was instantly relieved, relaxing and stepping closer so that they could take the bowls. Kili didn't want to try his hand at approaching me, still seeing how nervous I was; he reached out his to accept the bowl as I passed it over. Fili was by far the risk taker of the two, spurring on his younger brother when he was they were younger, no doubt. He closed the distance between us but did nothing more than take his bowl.

His blue eyes looked back to his brother before finding mine again, “Where is your bowl?”

A squeeze against my flesh, playful and teasing.

“Yes, have you eaten already?”

Kili's voice was almost overlapping with his brother's, curled on my other butt cheek and squeezing. 

“Did you like the food?”

On the opposite side, Fili's overlapped, curling around soft mounds of flesh.

“Why didn't you bring your food with you too?”

I closed my eyes, willing it to stop, the overlapping voices pulling cheeks apart.

“Do you not want to eat with us?”

Rubbing one after another. My cheeks were turning red with the struggle to remain firm.

“Do we offend in some way?”

Their voices kneading, leaving me short of breath.

“N-no, n-not at a-ll.”

“So you accept?!”

Immediately following my answer, Kili cried out happily, shocking me and making me realize that the entire time they had been speaking to me in tandem, I had been steadily stepping away from them.

“W-what?”

“Our offer to eat together!”

“What's that light?”

Light? Kili looked confused by what his brother said as well and looked at him curiously before he noticed we had gone deeper into the forest than before. I looked around in surprise myself because while we were in the middle of where we held the ponies, we were on the far right side, the looming forest in the distance and exactly where Fili saw the light. 

Whereas all my previous thoughts had been geared towards one thing and that was how to avoid the brothers in front of me, now my thoughts were focused entirely on the light ahead of us. Bowls set aside on a nearby tree branch, the brothers swept passed me into the dark of the forest, crunching over leaves and snapping over twigs. 

The Took and the Baggins in me fought for I knew I wanted to follow them to see what could provide such a light in the middle of a rainy forest. I was also worried about their safety if they were left alone but as a Baggins, I was also worried for my own. I stood there on the spot, wringing my hands in my skirts until I groaned aloud and took off after the brothers. My steps were far lighter than their own, making not a sound over twigs and leaves, and I quickly caught up with them. 

They seemed surprised to see me still there but immediately started to look around when they came to a clearing. “If there's a light? Shouldn't we tell Thorin?”

I whispered as I came up behind Fili, startling him when he backed up into me and turned to face me. He glanced at me before looking back in the direction of the camp and then to the light up again. He set his hand on my shoulder and started to guide me away from the camp, “Ah, no, best not to worry him.”

The statement filled me with no small amount of dread. Fili's hand though steady against my shoulder did not cover for the fact that his voice crept along my backside shakily, nervous and hesitant. Add to the fact that my jaw was starting to hurt again and I was very much not wanting to meet whatever it was that could possibly worry Thorin. I was reluctant to follow Fili deeper into the forest, seeing uprooted trees and destroyed bushes.

The damage in the surrounding forest looked a little too careless to be done by something like a man, “looks like something big uprooted these trees...”

“That was our thinking.”

Kili replied to my statement, his voice serious and pushing me along with Fili's hand that still was on my shoulder. As I looked around the clearing, seeing what the brothers were using for tracking purposes, I noticed the ache in my jaw again and how it was getting sharper as the brothers ventured off and I followed. 

“Over here!”

Born from the alert and commanding tone of Fili's order, I panicked and rushed up to where I heard him and stopped right in between where Kili and Fili both sought cover beside an overturned tree trunk. All three of us knelt in the cold muddy ground, my knee instantly feeling the chill of it. At the same time as I tried in vain to see whatever it was that Fili had seen, I gripped my jaw from the sharp pain that pervaded my senses. I barely noticed when a warm hand pressed to my lower back, such was the ringing in my teeth. I couldn't stop the low mewl of pain that escaped my lips, hiding my face into the tree trunk. Fili spared me a glance before I heard the laughter in the air again and the sharp ringing pain return.

“What is that?” I asked, my teeth clenched in pain and my fingers digging into bark.

“Trolls!”

Kili whispered fiercely before taking off over the tree trunk and into the forest, still intent on chasing the sound of troll as far as he needed. Fili followed after his brother, leaving me again with the choice to either go back and tell Thorin or follow them. 

I followed them without thought or protest, my body working faster than my mind. As soon as I was following them though, I cursed myself for being so stupid. Why was I really following them?! I was going to get myself killed out in the wild if I thought following Fili and Kili to a troll party was the smartest thing to do. I told myself that I really should have gone back but my thoughts were abruptly silenced when I suddenly saw the sight of a giant troll, strolling along in the forest brush.

I stifled my yelp of fright, throwing myself into the nearest tree trunk and pressing against it as flat as possible. I saw the large creature knock over trees easily and push aside branches as if they mattered so little, struggling with something in his arms that I instantly recognized as a sheep.

“Is that a sheep!?” 

I had spotted Fili and Kili crouched down together by their own tree, discussing something before they saw me and looked every bit like a child on a wild adventure. They looked red in the face like they were not even aware of what they were doing themselves. The look made me groan in disbelief because why did I ever follow them?! They probably thought all of this was fun!

“You get what we're thinking, Bilbo?”

Kili sounded excited and out of breath and his voice patted at my behind playfully. Caught up in the sensation and the mood, I leaned over from the tree and slipped down to crawl over to where the two brothers were. I was accepted into Kili's arm, his hand on my shoulder pulling me closer. “If there are trolls, there has to be a cave nearby!”

Fili's voice was the same as his brother's, pinching me even as he came to my other side, his face close to mine, “You're our burglar! You should go and- ”

“No! No no!” 

Absolutely not! I knew exactly what a troll cave contained if only from stories and yes, our food supply was low because of the drowned pony but I would not risk stealing from trolls! I really was foolish indeed to have believed anything these two brothers tried to con me into! 

I tried to pull away from Kili's grip, standing up to go back to my own tree, but Kili was beside me the entire time, his body nearly pressed completely to my side. Once we were at the tree, his broad chest pushed into my back that made me shudder, he explained that I would be perfectly safe because I was so small and trolls were so stupid, so of course I should go!

He looked down at me, his breath panting against the back of my cheek with a sharp chuckle, “We'll be right behind you.”

Oh, Kili was such a cheeky little thing, and before I could say anything in protest, he was pushing me out from the tree trunk only to be caught by Fili, who turned and directed me over to the camp fire in the distance, “If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like brown owl.”

What?!

I was pushed off into the shrubbery and only had a moment to recall in a panic that I hadn't the slightest idea what either a brown or a barn owl even sounded like! I turned back to try and ask them but to my utter horror, where they had been before was completely abandoned!

I wanted to scream and shout because those two bastards abandoned me no further than ten feet from an actual troll camp! I clenched my fists and turned in my place in a fret, knowing full well if I shouted then I would be found and definitely murdered.

Oh! How I wished for Myrtle! She had experience in this matter, I was sure!

I decided to just continue on as Fili and Kili trusted me to do! I was hired to be a burglar after all and what better way than to try and practice a bit on something that was indeed slow and stupid! As I stepped closer to the camp, hearing the trio of trolls going on about mutton and how they were tired of it, I contemplated the thought of just going back to the group and telling Thorin of the trolls. As I thought of everything I should have done, I inched closer until I was on the edge of the camp. I kept low to the ground, feeling a sick rush of adrenaline from being so close to danger and not having died yet.

I couldn't go back now that I was in the camp and so close to a troll! I couldn't just go back to the expectant eyes of Fili and Kili without something to show for our own little adventure. I couldn't go back to Thorin's impassive gaze without something to prove that I was actually a burglar! 

I cringed at the sound of a troll actually sneezing into the cooked stew!

I was going to throw up from the smell. I was going to throw up from the painful ringing in my teeth from their crude voices talking of food and farmers and how the chicken never tasted like chicken. One of the trolls had a pocket close by and I figured I might as well try for that since it _was_ the closest thing and books always said that trolls purses were very rewarding, indeed. 

I readied to make the move towards the purse. Yes, I would try for a troll purse... I would absolutely not try for a troll purse, I thought as I turned hastily turned back around and retreated at the sight of the troll start to turn around for something.

Oh, but I had to get something and the purse was right there!

I crawled slowly over to the troll, staying silent and still when a hand reached over for something nearby only to be retracted when another troll yelled at him. I continued to crawl over, jumping back when one of the troll was smacked practically into my path and -OH! Gross, they were not tasting the sneezed in stew! 

Oh, I really was going to vomit just from how foul the trolls were.

I reached for the purse again only to have to snap back away when the troll got up and scratched himself. I would have cried out in disgust at the image I saw before my eyes. I literally was a foot away from an actual troll ass and the smell and the _look_ of it was just...

It was alright, I assured myself, as the troll sat back down and I waited again for my chance for the purse again...

Only to be whisked off my feet into a large hand and literally shoved into a trolls face where whatever the sensation of a troll sneeze sounded like was covered up by the horribly real sensation of now being covered in troll snot...

I couldn't breathe... I couldn't think...

I shuddered and seethed; I was going to kill Fili and Kili. I was going to murder them myself because it didn't matter if I was a lady or not. I could have had a dick hanging from my legs for all to see and I would have known that this was wrong!

Not as wrong as literally be thrown down no better than a used hanky though that was exactly what I was. I quickly got to my feet, revolted by how my clothes stuck to me in an entirely more unpleasant way than when the rain made them stick. 

“What is it?”

My teeth rung and I tried to think of a way back into the woods. I was going to die if I couldn't get away from them now. 

“Lumme, if I knows! What are yer?”

“Bilbo Baggins, a bur--a hobbit!” I squeaked out in shock and cursed myself for of all the times for my manners to actually be in tact, it would have to be when the one asking wanted to eat me! I looked around in a fright, wondering just what sounds a barn or brown owl would even make. 

“What's a burrahobbit?” One of the trolls asked while another asked if one could eat them. I cowered back in fright, shaking and trembling at the idea that they would actually eat me. 

“Yer can try!”

I yelped into action born of pure terror, ducking large hands and turning to the forest only to be stopped in my way by the sight of a troll blocking the way, “She wouldn't make above a mouthful, not when she was skinned and boned.”

I was poked by the troll but because I was so much smaller, I ended up stumbling back into the other. I froze at the edge of a knife thrust in my direction, holding up my hands, still unable to speak out of fear. I was pushed off to the side when one troll spoke of there being anymore “burrahobbits” out in the forest and I tried to use that opportunity to slip down underneath one of the trolls and avoid the grasping hand of the other. 

Try as I might to have made it back into the forest, I ended up being caught again by the legs, entirely hung upside down and cursing my skirt even as I struggled to hold it down and not reveal my bloomers! 

The trolls pulled me closer, asking me more questions and I couldn't think of anything to say other than to deny everything and scream in fright when the troll that sneezed on me suggested to hold my feet over the camp fire to make me squeal. I didn't need a camp fire to make me shriek in fright. I was already scared enough to do that without the need for violence!!

I was almost too terrified to notice when something was jumping out from the nearby forest, attacking the leg of one of the trolls and sending him stumbling off away from me. I twisted as best I could, relieved with every fiber of my being that Kili was there attacking the troll! Oh how I could have kissed him right then and there for saving me!

“DROP HER!” 

Kili's bellowed command bounced off the trees, a spank across my bottom. I would have wanted to kill him for shouting so close to me, for his voice spanking me at such a time but I was just so relieved that he was actually there. “I said, DROP her!”

“If yer say so.”

Being handled like a tiny creature was not fun in the slightest but being thrown into Kili was even worse than being hoisted up by a troll. He caught me well enough, throwing down his sword to do so but we fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. 

Too quick for me to register, Kili had rolled us away from the main camp before leaving me on the ground. Hearing familiar sensations, I looked up and saw that not only was Kili going back into the fray but that everyone from camp was there as well! I saw Thorin attack powerful limbs, Dwalin smack bulky jaws, and even Ori use his sling shot against the large creatures. 

Everyone seemed to be holding their own against the massive trolls but even their large forms were hard to contend with, more than once lifting a dwarf off his feet and tossing them about. It was when I saw the troll who sneezed on me grab Ori and make to stomp on a distracted Bofur that I sprang to my feet. I pushed aside the older dwarf just in time to avoid the massive foot that stomped to the ground beside us.

That was all it took for the trolls to remember me and suddenly the one who had caught me before was making a bee line for me and I though I tried to get away, I was caught again and dragged away from the ground, despite how fiercely I dug into the dirt and tried to fight it.

“Lay down your arms or we'll rip her's off!”

My limbs were being held spread, caught in powerful grips that pulled even as they threatened. It hurt, the pain in my mouth and the pain in my limbs. I couldn't help the look of fear that came to my eyes because I was truly well caught this time and with nothing more to do than lay down their arms, I saw Thorin drop his sword. The others followed suit in short order, a feeling of guilt welling up in my stomach so profound that I couldn't stop the tears that came to my eyes.

Being stuffed into burlap sacks was hardly the best for the group's mood and even greater still was when the trolls tied up Dwalin, Dori, Bofur, Ori, Bifur, and Nori all to a spit and set up to roast them. 

The rest of us were forced to watch as they did all this, caught in our bags and struggling with the want to help our friends and no being able to do anything. I frowned and tried to think of something from where I laid across Thorin's legs and Kili's head against my hip but I couldn't think of anything that would actually be of use. 

“-dawn's not far away. I dunt fancy bein' turned to stone!”

Suddenly, I had all the idea that I would ever need. I looked up at the sky, happy to see the first tendrils of false dawn and while I still had quite some time to buy, I would try nonetheless!

“Wait!” I struggled to get off of Thorin, hearing him grunt in displeasure at being so roughly pushed against. I struggled and turned until I was up on my feet, nearly tripping over a Fili who lie face first in the ground, “You are making a terrible mistake!”

“Ah-wha?”

“I meant with the seasoning!” I tried again, trying not to shout when the dwarves on the spit yelled at me to not even attempt to reason with the trolls. I didn't want to reason with them though as much as just delay them and it seemed one of the trolls kind of understood what I was trying to do. He tried to argue against it but the troll who was in charge of cooking stopped him. 

“Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something a lot stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!”

I winced at the screams and shouts of being a traitor from behind me, tripping away from Fili who actually tried to bite my ankles before I realized that the trolls were arguing again. My teeth were hurting at the sound of their voices and the fact that I actually had to pay attention to them as they spoke, arguing amongst themselves about whether or not to take my advice. 

“Let the burrahobbit talk!”

“The secret to cooking dwarf is-”

“Yes?”

I tried to think. I couldn't think of any good answer to give the troll. He kept prodding me for something and my teeth ached and I clenched them against his voice, “ Is ah-I'm telling you.”

Still his voice prodded me and still it ached me until I just relied on my tried and true teachings of a hobbit and shouted out the first thing that came to my mind, “You need to skin them first!”

What the fuck, Bilbo!? I shouted at myself because what kind of answer was that?! Everyone was yelling at me and their voices attacked me from all sides. I was horrified to see one of the trolls go for a knife though as I watched him do so, I saw a hint of grey on the horizon and felt a press against my shoulder. Was I hearing someone hum?

My attention was pulled away when one of the trolls just up and went for Bombur, distracting the trio as he held him up high overhead to just try and eat raw.

“Not that one! He's infected!”

I shouted out again just to make the troll stop, relieved when he did.

“Yeah, he's got worms in his--tubes?”

At this informative though a completely untrue account of Bombur and what he actually had pertaining to tubes, it did make the troll drop Bombur and look to his companions. All of them looked horrified at the idea that the dwarves were crawling with worms and I immediately spoke, “In fact they all have them. They're all infested with parasites. It's a terrible business, I really wouldn't risk it.”

Despite being called a liar and Kili nearly ruining the entire thing by being entirely too loud about his status as a parasite owner, I was so grateful when Thorin kicked Kili into being silence. It immediately changed the tune of the dwarves, who instantly went from not having parasites to being positively riddled with them. I would have laughed at the change of heart if it didn't mean that it would give everything away but as I looked at the trolls, it seemed they didn't buy it anyway.

After the nasty business of being called a ferret and no, I was not a ferret thank you very much, I nearly felt faint with relief when I heard the voice of Gandalf shout into the sky, “The dawn will take you all!!”

In a great rush and a sound of something striking, Gandalf split the stone and the first ray of sunlight washed over the camp clearing, blinding me and making me look away. 

By the time I looked back, Gandalf was gone from his spot and the trolls were still, frozen into place just as they said they would have been. 

I breathed out in disbelief because we had actually been saved...


	12. Thanking Our Burglar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili and Kili decide to formally thank their burglar for saving them from the trolls...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter now has amazing fanart, drawn by the ever amazing and talented Ewelock! I truly do not deserve such amazing hawtness!
> 
> Check it out here:  
> http://ewelock.tumblr.com/post/43549542103/what-is-this-ot3-even-called-for-this-fic

Though not in the way we would have originally planned had it just been the three of us, Fili, Kili and I were standing before the troll cave. Sure, Thorin and the others were standing there with us and they at times grumbled under their breaths for almost being eaten but all in all, it felt wonderful. The brothers appeared to share in my sentiment for on more than occasion, we caught the other grinning in triumph..

Getting into the troll cave was a far different matter though.

It was something I hadn't thought of and a neglected fact in my books back home but when the company finally found the troll cave, all of us were at a loss as to what to do with our new obstacle. None of us were really expecting a door of stone to be blocking the way but now that we were in front of it, we would have to try and gain admittance. Already one could smell the stench of trolls all around, seeping from the stone; a nose cringing odor that was tangy and bitter, sour like the smell of curdled milk.

I stayed a good distance back along with some of the older dwarves, happily entertained by the sight of Kili, Fili, Bofur, Thorin and Gandalf try to open the door to no avail. They tried all manner of idea against the impassable stone door; pushing it until they were red in the face, pulling it from one side and then the other, even kicking it when frustrations were fully kindled. Gandalf tried his hand with incantations but nothing could persuade the immovable door.

They cursed the door, swearing loudly and wiped their sweaty brows from all their vain efforts. They looked utterly miserable as they struggled against the stone, sure that they would find a grand prize inside if they just tried a little harder.

I had a great time watching it, a smile on my face that none would suspect to be wicked on such a proper hobbit lass. My fingers twisted the key to the stone door that was stashed in my pocket, just content to watch them suffer a little more. Oh, I could have told them that I found it on the ground nearly an hour ago after Gandalf helped me from my burlap sack... but as I watched them strain themselves, I remembered what being sneezed on by a troll felt like.

We could stand to suffer a wee bit longer.

When even Gandalf started to grumble in frustration, taking to whacking the door with his staff, I decided that I had had enough fun and pulled the key out. I managed to attract Nori's attention, staring at the key in disbelief before he looked from my hand to the dwarves who were still straining at the door. We shared a look and he had to turn away to cover his mouth in a fit of giggles that he tried to hide from his brother, Dori.

“Would this be of any use?”

As soon as the group turned around, I almost couldn't suppress my own giggles at the look of pure disbelief the brothers gave me and the vexation Thorin's eyes directed at me.

“Why on earth didn't you mention it before?”

Gandalf groaned before he grabbed it from my hand and fitted it into the key hole that really to the normal eye looked to be nothing more than a crack in the door. For as hard as the dwarves strained themselves to move the door without the key, it was almost comical how easy it swung open once unlocked.

The smell that escaped from the troll cave was pittance enough for my own underhanded trick, oozing out and engulfing us in a cloud that made even the mightiest of us look away. Even Thorin, so intent on looking so serious all the time, put a hand to his mouth and looked a tad paler before he seemed to recover himself. The brothers were doing worse, gagging and walking away from the door for some fresh air.

Only the bravest and most daring of us ventured forth into the cave and I was happy to admit that I was not one of them. The stench was undoubtedly stronger inside if the gasps and gagging weren't enough to go by but in good time, we were helping to clear out what we could. The trolls had pots of coins and untouched food fit for our consumption and even Dwalin was excited when they found a barrel of ale that was still full.

“Bilbo!” I perked up at the mention of my name, knowing that it was Gandalf just from the pressure against my shoulder. Turning to see him still by the entrance of the cave, I hopped up towards him, seeing him holding something that looked to be a short sword in his hand. “Here, this is about your size.”

He offered it to me, the pressure of his voice guiding me closer so that I could look at the blade that I saw was really an elven dagger. Small it would have been for them but the perfect length for me to wield once I became accustomed to it. Well, accustomed to it had I actually been fit for fighting. Gandalf pushed it into my hands, waiting until my fingers closed around the cool sheathe; they felt clumsy around the blade, utterly foreign and I was made uncomfortable by the idea that I would actually ever need to use such a weapon.

“I'm sorry, Gandalf but I've never used anything like this in my life. I can't-”

His smile was comforting, his eyes warm and approving in the face of my negative reply to the idea of keeping this sword. I stopped when I saw his face, my thoughts clearly reflected in my eyes. I did not want it and that Gandalf knew; he also understood that I had never used anything like it before either and he was still content with my answer. It suddenly struck me that he was humming under his breath, his soft touch at my shoulder merely resting. Not pushing or pulling, just resting.

It occurred to me that if I were to have this conversation with anyone else present that they would have expected nothing more than what answer I gave. To Gandalf, it was as if he expected nothing less from me. It seemed a great thing that Gandalf spoke to me as if confiding, “The blade is of Elvish make, which means it will glow blue when orcs or goblins are nearby.”

He was not telling me of what I could attack with this blade but of the dangers it could possibly save me from. In his own way, he was telling me that while he wanted for my safety with the sword close at hand, he did not wish for me to use it if I could help it.

I nodded and accepted the sword, feeling its heavy weight in my hands before Gandalf nodded and went to help the others with our payload.

Because we had run into a bit of nasty business the night before with the trolls and hadn't any chance for actual sleep before our raid on the troll cave, all of us were heavy limbed by the time we got back to camp. Exhaustion soaked the camp as thoroughly as any rain and with hardly any grace, all of us fell into our bedrolls and slept under the warm rays of the sun while Gandalf stayed up to watch over us.

Sleep claimed me almost before I bothered to get my jacket off, snuggling down under a thinner blanket without much care at all for the snores around me...

I mumbled, brushing something away before feeling a weight on my shoulder.

“Bilbo?”

Kili? I groaned and turned back over in my bedroll, uncaring as to why I would be woken by one of the brothers.

“Miss Hobbit?”

Correction; woken by both of the brothers. I grumbled and tried to burrow deeper into my blanket but a hand was shaking me gently and pulling down my blanket, “Wake up, Bilbo.”

I opened my eye, groaning at the harsh sun and the gross feeling in my mouth. Both of the brothers were kneeling down by my bedroll, fresh from sleep themselves and eyeing the camp around them. Was something wrong? I turned my head to look around, seeing that most of the group still slept before looking back at the dwarves near me. “What is it?”

“We'd like to talk with you for a moment.”

I was too tired to process their voices against my body; I groaned and tried to pull up my blanket again, “Later. I'm sleeping.”

“Please? It'll only take a little bit, we promise!”

I cracked open an eye and looked at Kili, who glanced at Fili with a quick nod, “Right?”

I looked at Fili, who nodded at me, his eyes serious, “Right. Real quick like.”

I groaned and decided that I would listen to them, whatever it was that they wanted to say. I certainly didn't get the impression that the brothers were going to let me sleep otherwise so I just accepted it for what it was. The brothers seemed tense but they waited for me as I rolled over, took a sip of water from my water skin and untangled myself from the bedroll. They hovered close, both of them rising when I did and looking around to make sure that they had not disturbed the others. Their eyes lingered on Thorin, as if they were trying to confirm if he were truly asleep, but I pushed them both to snap them back to attention.

I didn't miss how they both grinned at me, eventually leading the way to the edge of the camp; they motioned to the nearby forest edge where the ponies were still resting and I nodded, letting them understand that I would follow where they led.

As we walked into the forest, I spared a glance back at the camp where I saw the group still undisturbed in their slumber.

Fili and Kili didn't pause to wait for me, strolling further away under the cover and shade of the forest until I had to hurry to catch up.

Now that we were alone in the forest, I wondered what the brothers would even need to talk to me about. Thoughts of last night and how they had cornered me came rushing back and I willed away the heat on my cheeks because I would be having none of that! The brothers just wanted to talk and that was it!

“So..?”

I began, hoping to urge the two silent brothers into conversation but the look they exchanged was quick before Kili approached me, “Bilbo, we would like to thank you!”

“Thank me? For what?”

“For the whole troll thing,” I startled at the sound of Fili's voice near my side but for some reason I was not overwhelmed by his physical closeness. I was reminded of how the night before we three had been in the forest with the trolls nearby, how our adrenaline rushed and I willing came close to them. I remembered their heat against my body and Kili's chest against my back.

I took a step back away from Kili, swallowing the lump that came to my throat. I was alone with the brothers in the forest and the camp was nearby but sleeping. I was alone with them and they were talking to me, even as they surrounded me.

“We feel terrible about leading you into danger.”

Kili's eyes were soft as they stared down at me, dark pools of brown urging for a forgiveness. His voice curled along the skin of my rear and I breathed in deeply at the feel of it, entirely all too aware of how I did not flinch away from it. Adrenaline was starting to course through my veins as Kili stepped towards me, his eyes never leaving mine. “We didn't mean for it to go so far.” His voice trailed warmth along my skin and my fingers clenched in my skirt to try and not react to it.

“We'd like to show you our gratitude for saving us.”

Fili's voice was closer; behind me and pressing up into flesh but as I turned my head around to see where he was, I realized that it was not his voice I felt but his physical self. I felt the breath I had been holding shudder out, my cheeks flushed from the blonde dwarf's proximity.

I had to move away. Had to get away from the brothers and the realization that for days now, I had been prodded and poked into a corner suddenly made flesh. Their heat surrounding me distracted, throwing off my senses, and I startled when I felt a rough hand on my waist. I made to move away from the brothers, knowing that this was going too far, knowing that I had to get away or else be lost to the overwhelming urge to need and want.

I could tell from the way my brow felt that my thoughts were written so plainly across my face as they always were when in distress. If my face were not enough to give away my intention to flee, my body was certainly poised for it, tense and ready to bolt. Being warriors armed with the instincts to survive, the brothers could tell that I intended to flee and were made ready for it when I did try. I went to move away but didn't even get half a step in before I felt Kili's hand reach out, grabbing onto the thick of my arm and kissing me fiercely.

The force of our lips colliding was overwhelming, heat and saliva exchanged in a clicking of teeth before I was pressed against the broad form of a chest and Kili moving in to close the distance.

The heat of Kili at my front and Fili at my back was disorienting, pulling a moan from my lips as Fili's hand reclaimed my waist and the other trail a roughened path against my thigh. Between the two bodies, I was helpless to do anything more than submit, opening my mouth wider to Kili's questing tongue, his groan echoing down my body and gripping my ass tightly.

How overwhelming the sensations were, Kili's lips dominating mine while his brother gripped my waist, groaning into my neck when the push of Kili's body against mine caused me to rock against the hardness I felt behind me. Without quite feeling myself do so, I threaded my fingers into the dark locks of Kili's hair, moaning when his groan buried its way into my skin.

How intense and hot this was compared to anything I had ever felt before in my life!

I gave in to the urge to press back into Fili's chest, his hips grinding into mine even as I pulled away from Kili and turned to kiss him. His mustache tickled my skin; his lips tasted of salt, and I nipped at them, swallowing down the chuckle that came from his lips even as I leaned into the feel of Kili pressing wet kisses to my throat.

I whined in protest when Kili pulled away, “You're not going to push us away?”

I shuddered at how hoarse it sounded, the possessive feel of his voice as it curled low on my ass, making me rock back into Fili's hard length to try and have more friction. Kili's eyes were dark and he shared a surprised look with his brother over my shoulder, “You really can feel it?”

“D-don't stop talking.”

It was shaky how I delivered it, wrecked by desire and need but when my hands found Kili's hair, the affirmation of what they had so long prodded me for was a consent in and of itself. Warmth pooled low in my belly, arousal taking over common sense as I became ravenous, locking lips with the younger brother and growling into his mouth.

“You two should see yourselves.”

I groaned at the sound of Fili's voice, running down and pressing. I felt a hand against my stomach, undoing buttons and pressing to the warm cotton shirt underneath. “You have too many buttons, Miss Hobbit”

I agreed with him, helping him with buttons in haste and moaning when I felt the evidence of Kili's arousal against my belly, hard and ready and aching beneath his trousers.

I needed to get off my feet, needed to feel the press of them closer still than I was even now.

When I let my weight be taken by the brothers, both of them understood what I needed and the three of us collapsed in a pile against a nearby tree trunk, adjusting in our frenzy until I was on Fili's lap and Kili pressed between my thighs, his tongue licking a trail down my neck even as his hands moved against my chemise shift.

If at one time I thought that one partner may have been overwhelming, I was positively flummoxed over what to do about two at the same time. My hands couldn't seem to grip enough, leather seemed too in the way, desperate moans and groans turning into whines that I couldn't make sense of.

I wanted and needed. I begged for the brothers to understand even as they rocked and pressed.

“Wait wait! Too close!”

Fili gasped out, gripping my thigh and pushing Kili back for a second; both the brothers looked utterly wrecked, their lips red and their faces glistening with a sweat that I found on my own as well.

At the loss of movement, of heat moving so ungracefully, I whined low in my throat and reached for Fili, only to have him grab my hand and breathe in deeply. “Hold on... Let's slow down.”

Kili understood what his brother meant and I trembled in suppressed desire when Fili adjusted me more comfortably in his lap, spreading out my legs and nudging me to scoot down. His scent was intoxicating but I willed myself to slow down and not be so desperate. I was hardly young and I could control my baser instincts if that was what was asked of me. Still, I didn't bother to stop myself from burying my nose into Fili's neck, inhaling deeply of his musky scent that sent my body aflame.

I was being moved, roughened hands moving aside skirts until my bloomers were revealed.

“These are too indecent, Bilbo...”

Kili's voice whispered, his lips kissing at the calf where he untied one of the ruffles before tracing his hand along the skin there. His voice was desperate, licking in waves down my backside and I helpless to do anything more than groan.

Fili handled me expertly, moving my weight as if it were nothing until he had his hand underneath my skirts, untying the laces to my bloomers and dipping his fingers inside. He was intent on keeping his pace slow, measured so as to make me tremble with desire; his fingers did not go straight to what would give me most pleasure. They followed along the soft skin of my thigh, dipping into the crevice between thigh and heated flesh.

“Look at him, Miss Hobbit.”

I did not want to relinquish where I was leaning against Fili's neck but I turned my eyes to look at Kili, moaning at the sight he made when I caught the sight of him stroking himself in a tight fist. Hard and leaking, his cock looked desperate and I squirmed in Fili's lap at the sight of it, wanting it and not feeling brave enough to ask for it.

Callused fingers finally went deeper, dipping into my wet folds and making me gasp with how intense it felt. Instantly the hand was gone and I squirmed, silently begging but not speaking of what I wanted. The fingers returned a moment later, skilled as they stroked deep and a thumb circled over my clit.

I shuddered, feeling close and desperately wanting.

“Careful, brother, we don't want to overwhelm our burglar.”

Kili's voice chuckled, coming closer until his hand pushed away my shift and he dipped down to lick at a perked nipple.

“She's almost too much,” Fili groaned, his hips helplessly thrusting up to get some friction for his own trapped cock, “Her pussy's so wet.”

Their voices pulled at my cheeks and I whimpered with the need for them to go faster, slow down, I did not know.

Kili locked eyes with me before glancing at his brother, an unspoken signal for something; easily, Fili pulled his fingers out of my bloomers and adjusted me lower. Both brothers seemed to delight in the gasp that I released when I felt Kili pulling up on my bloomers, pushing them to reveal what was soaked and ready. My embarrassment made me struggle at the position, my legs trapped by my own clothing and revealed in broad daylight for the sights of two dwarven brothers.

My struggle seemed to only spur them on, Fili moving his hands so that he could pinch and roll a nipple between his fingers while he worried a spot on my neck, hidden underneath hair. Kili was now in control of my body, moving it as he pleased and untying his breeches when he was finished. His fingers touched me gently, making me flinch from the contact, before locking eyes with mine and dipping a finger inside.

I threw my head back in a moan, astounded by how thick his finger felt and how he too hissed at it, his cheeks flushed, “So tight too. It's amazing.”

I was desperate for it now, panting and gasping as his finger worked me enough to easily slide in two. How amazing his fingers felt stroking my inner walls, delving deep while Fili's fingers teased at my nipples and his lips engulfed some of my louder moans.

I shuddered, so close to release that when Kili pulled his fingers out, I almost felt the urge to scream at him.

I gasped when Kili moved closer, this time pulling a moan from me when I felt his cock rubbing against slickness. I watched as he trembled against my body, feeling the heavy breathing of Fili beneath me until he pushed forward and I felt him breach me.

“Mahal, she's so fucking tight.”

I felt like I was clawing at the fabric of Fili's pants, biting my lip to keep from becoming too loud until Kili was fully seated inside me. When I took him all the way to the base, I breathed out unsteadily, panting and overwhelmed with how full I felt. Kili hadn't moved, taking a moment to calm his own body; he chuckled and leaned forward to grasp Fili by the back of his neck.

Had I not been too far gone from pleasure, I would have sputtered in shock at the sight of Kili pressing his lips to his brother's but the two looked so damned sexy, so at ease nipping at each other and tasting each other with tongues. In his enthusiasm to get closer to Fili, the younger pushed deeper still inside me, pulling a moan from me. My need remembered, Fili pulled away from his brother and smirked.

“Manners, brother. Ladies first.”

Kili looked at me apologetically and gave me a quick kiss before he pulled nearly all the way out, thrusting back in forcefully and groaning in pleasure. He quickly found a rhythm to his liking and I gasped as each slap of skin pushed me ever closer to my own release. I was needy by then, desperate for it as I gripped onto the leather of Kili's jacket and focused on the sensation of the dwarf rutting against in abandon. A whine was torn from my lips as I felt Fili's fingers pleasure me even further, circling my nub and making me rock into each thrust.

It was just too intense, so amazingly good, and I was wrecked with how forceful my orgasm tore through my limbs, reducing me to shuddering and crying out from behind Fili's hand that covered my mouth in time to stifle what could not be contained. Nearly incoherent with pleasure, I barely felt when Kili's rhythm faltered and he swore, pulling out quickly so that he could spill somewhere other than inside the warmth of a hobbit.

All of us just breathed, our panting lungs completely blocking out the sounds of the wood.

Now more than before so thoroughly exhausted, I was content to just breathe heavily against Fili and under the weight of his brother, Kili. I know I heard a chuckle, a laughter born from euphoria and being so loose limbed. I was happy to just be allowed a quick rest, threading my fingers into Kili's dark hair and feeling his lips against my knuckles when I was too tired to lean forward when he moved away to sit up straight.

Looking back up at the elder of the two, I saw Fili smiling down at me and beckon me up so that he could lay a gentle kiss on my lips. It felt good to taste those lips again, happy when his hand tickled my cheek.

“Fili! Kili! Are you back there?”

All of us paled at the familiar voice of Thorin cutting into the air; instantly we were aware of our position and how scandalous it looked out in the middle of the day. Of the three of us, only Fili was presentable and somehow I doubted even that if the rock hard cock against my back was any indication. All of us barely exchanged a look, a look that we all recognized as pure childish fear at being discovered. Feeling every bit like I was going to get a scolding by a mad parent, I snapped up in fright. Hastily my fingers attempted at buttons!

Fili was right, I cursed, I did have too many buttons!

Behind me, Fili was trying to will down an erection and Kili was practically shoving himself back in his pants but all too soon, Thorin was upon us and I just barely succeeded in buttoning my shirt. I turned around to face the bulking form of our leader, horrified when his nose cringed at the scent in the air and the look of dishevelment that the three of us made.

“What's going on here?”

His voice ordered for an explanation, his blue eyes piercing as they surveyed the picture of our hastily done up clothing. His voice stroked along my thigh almost hard enough to hurt. His mood was foul, annoyed with having to deal with such nonsense, even as he took in the sight of the two dwarves on other side of me. Slowly they raked down the elder and then went to the younger, waiting and expectant.

“We were just talking with Bilbo.”

Kili began, clearing his throat and waiting for Fili to continue. Thorin's eyes went straight for the elder brother. As I watched Thorin wait for Fili's answer, I noticed that his body looked tense and aggravated but if he wanted to intimidate an answer out of any one of us, why did he not go for the easiest?

“Yeah, talking. We hadn't realized the time, was all.”

As Thorin's eyes went back and forth between the two brothers, I figured out quite curiously that Thorin was rather intently not looking at me.

“Talking?”

While his eyes passed over me completely, disregarding as if I were not even there, his voice grabbed my waist and held strong until it vanished. He did not seem to believe the brothers by his tone, his eyes looking at the two as if they really thought him that dense. The two would not give more information than was asked of them and Thorin sighed when he realized as such.

“And what were you talking about?”

His voice pressed along my lower back, almost making me lean closer to his taller form.

“We were just thanking her.”

“Yes, for saving us from the trolls.”

At this Thorin's eyes snapped to me and I froze in place under such a cold stare; his eyes quested for an answer, a truthful one and I was helpless to provide one. I was frozen in place, my hands clutching fabric to keep from fidgeting under such intense scrutiny.

“Is what they say true?”

I felt proud that I didn't look at the two brothers for assistance or support, standing up straighter and doing my best to make it seem like I was casually just going around with a half unbuttoned shirt and messy vest like it were a normal thing.

“Yep, I feel thoroughly thanked.”

Literally the only thing that saved my face from paling to a white sheen was the fact that just a few hours ago I had felt true terror at the hands of a troll. That being said, I was still utterly and horrifically embarrassed by the fact that out of all my hobbit manners and well wishing collection of sayings, I chose to say something like that! From both sides, I tried my best to ignore the struggle that the brothers endured to contain their laughter.

Thorin seemed to deliberately ignore the brothers, focusing instead on the forced ignorance of the connection between my statement and my appearance. Strangely enough though, he actually appeared to relax a little after I said my peace and he exchanged another look between the two brothers.

His eyes looked me over again, “Perhaps a thanks is in order...”

Before I could even think about what that could possibly mean, Thorin was leaving us, quickly crossing back to where we made camp.

“Get some rest while you can. We move out in a few hours.”

As soon as all of us saw Thorin's figure vanish behind the line of trees and bushes, we let out a collective breath of relief and started to laugh at the idea of being caught by Thorin. As I laughed, I felt far better than I had in days previous and righted my clothes in a more relaxed manner. The two brothers couldn't contain their laughter at what I said and buckled over in fits until I promptly smacked them and pushed them over.

Eventually, we made our way back through the forest, slow to return back to camp and our own individual bedrolls. I glanced at the two, thankful that we were all decent enough to look at in terms of our attire but a glance from Fili had me blushing and looking away. I felt my heart warm at the sound of his chuckle, a flush coming to my cheeks when he pulled me close.

Before the three of us broke the line of the forest, Kili stopped us and I looked at him confused before he leaned down to lay a quick kiss on my lips, a gesture that was mirrored by his brother.

“Until next time?”

Fili grinned, playfully chuckling into my hair before going off with his brother.

I laughed at the warm feeling that crept up in my chest again, my hand unconsciously going to my hair before I hurried back along to the safety of my bedroll. I allowed myself to be wooed back to sleep by the heated remembrance of what activities the brothers and I had just done, all too eager for when the next time would be.


	13. The Last Homely House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thorin and company make it to the hidden valley of Imladris...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T_T I would like to apologize for not updating yesterday, I felt horrible about it but I just couldn't get the words to flow!
> 
> Also, the Elvish below is just the lines from the movie, so there's nothing huge going on in the meanings.

It was the most beautiful place I had ever lain my eyes on. 

The hidden valley of Imladris was like the first ray of light in a dark sky that made one shiver helplessly beneath it. Having it revealed from the end of a narrow walkway through a cave, I never thought such a sight would be before me.

Still out of breath from having to run for our lives, our group tarried at the edge of the cliff side, trying to gather their wits about them. As I rested off to the side of the ledge, I glanced around at the rest of the group to see how they were; apparently it was truly as close a call as I thought it felt like, the dwarves looking all too relieved but still a bit anxious. None of us quite knew what to do now that we were at the hidden home of the elves, though by the looks of it, some of them wished we were still back in the cave.

I honestly couldn't understand the dislike that brewed between the dwarves and elves, nor was I inclined to even try. I was far too busy being happy over the fact that we had actually survived an orc ambush _and_ managed to find _the_ Rivendell! _The_ Rivendell! It was just such an exciting prospect of this journey, one that I hadn't even considered before when I left. Long have I loved the hidden valley of Imladris from the stories I read in books and long have I yearned to journey here if I were leave the Shire on my own. 

Even considering the near death experience only minutes ago removed from reality, I couldn't help but still be appreciative of the fact that I was actually going to be staying at the Elven home in the company of elves! _REAL_ elves! Well, would be staying here if Gandalf got his way but as he and Thorin were currently in a heavy debate on that subject, it was a little rocky on that front. Briefly, there was a part of my mind that wondered if Thorin would be ...in a way, stubborn enough to actually turn us around?

The thought of what was still back there in the cave beyond made me close my eyes at the memory of the orcs, their voices shouting across the wide open fields of grass and rock. Their cruel tones were something I would not easily forget, their foreign language igniting a whirlwind of cutting pain behind my ears that disoriented me. 

No, I decided, not even Thorin would go back in the cave to brave the possible danger there. All of the group looked a little too comfortable sitting near the cliff edge and I poked my head from behind Dwalin's thick frame and caught the sight of the two brothers resting. I smiled at the sight of their mussed hair, close in conversation and laughing. I was glad that we all were safe. 

When we finally did move from the ledge, the group was slow to maneuver down the narrow ledge, dwarven feet scuffing heavily against rock and dirt. Safely in the shadow of Dwalin's massive frame, I felt the adrenaline still rushing in my ears start to lessen and allow me to breathe more easily. We were safe, I told myself, even as I hovered close to Dwalin, who even in the chaos of the raid kept me close when I was within range of his protective eye. 

Now that we were safe in the hidden valley, I allowed myself a chance to relax and look around, almost overwhelmed by the natural beauty that was all around us. Trees were so rich and beautiful, their leaves a vivid green that seemed to glisten in the sun's light. Even in the air, they smelled differently than the forests did in the wild, a scent almost like a fresh mint lightly hovering in the air. 

The architecture of Rivendell was gorgeous as well, high structures that were so tall, elegantly curving in fine slopes that looked gentle but sturdy. We passed under such a structure, a mist from the river below rising to stick in my hair, fresh and cool and smelling just as pure as the trees. Everything in Rivendell smelled so good, like flowers and shea butter and honeyed milk. 

I was still so enamored of the place that I didn't notice when all of us stopped to wait in the middle of a courtyard, everyone tossing their bags on the ground in an undignified heap. It took bumping into Bofur to realize that everyone was just waiting, unsure if he just let me bump into him to let me know that we weren't moving anymore or if he didn't see me. I mumbled an apology to him, still taking in the beauty that could be seen as far as the eye could when I heard a voice call out. 

“Mithrandir!” 

I closed my eyes because it was so beautiful... 

When I turned around to face whoever was greeting Gandalf, I was treated to the sight of a very tall elf, every bit as beautiful and handsome as the texts made them out to be. He was standing so straight as he approached us down the steps, his grace so easily noticed. Long and dark, his brown hair was so utterly perfect that I actually glanced at Kili, who despite having a sort of similar hairstyle, carried twigs and the occasional bug within his shaggy locks. 

“Lastannem i athrannedh i Vruinen.” 

Oh, the differences of elvish voices and dwarves'... 

I closed my eyes at the sound of his voice again, a euphoria washing over me and filling me with an ease that reached down into my very soul, my feet feeling as I were as light as air. Gandalf politely greeted him as Lindir, spoken in the same elvish tongue that I could not understand but oh, did it sound wonderful. As I stared at the two, I found myself betting on Lindir smelling just as good as Rivendell. I looked at his hair; I bet his hair smelled divine too... 

My eyes fluttered shut as I listened to Lindir speak again, this time in Westron.. 

...what I wouldn't have given to smell his hair... just have him bend over and......... smell his hair, _yeah_...... 

The sound of a horn broke me from my reverie of heavenly bliss, shaking me in shock and making me look back from where it came. With the way my nose was tickling just on the verge of a sneeze, I should have known what was approaching but I was still surprised by the sight of a party of elves approaching us from the direction we had come from. All of them were on full sized horses, entirely too tall even from the distance they were currently at. Their hooves were like sharp claps against the stone of the bridge,their pace never slowing. 

“Ifridî bekâr! Close ranks!” 

Thorin's deep voice made me jump as he shouted to the group, the sensation of it gripping me hard across my arm and pulling me back. Before I could react to the Westron part of his command, I was being pulled back by Bofur and pushed back into the safety of the center of the group. I stumbled back, easily losing my balance with the force of the shove, stopping only when I bumped into the solid chest of Thorin and Kili's shoulder. Both of them were staring down the approaching party of elves and I couldn't quite understand why Thorin called everyone into such a defensive stance. 

Gandalf had brought us here, after all, and why would he have led us knowingly into danger? 

The dwarves defended their position well given the fact that we were currently being surrounded by a host of rather extremely tall elves on extremely giant horses, their weapons raised and doing their best to intimidate the presumed enemy. All around me, I felt crowded by the scent of sweat, musk and metal, the very definition of dirty dwarf smell, made all the more powerful by the press of Thorin at my back and Kili at my side. 

Not even counting the dwarves who were already taller than I, the utter difference of height compared to me and even the shortest of the elves made the group the very picture of what helpless would look like in any tale. The group being so tense set me on edge, their almost panicked state at making sure the youngest and weakest of us were protected at all cost. Despite being a lover of elven culture and now apparently their brunette men, I felt my hand go for my own sword, worry creeping up my spine to match what was already present in the group. 

“Gandalf!” 

My body relaxed instantly against my own wishes, all thoughts of worry and paranoia over the elves and their towering forms rushing from my limbs like a wave crashing against a cliff side. The elf who spoke smiled at Gandalf, his own brunette locks looking not a bit out of place (even after riding a horse) and the light catching his purple armor most becomingly. 

“Lord Elrond!” 

The group around me were still tense, their weapons at the ready for whatever would come but at Gandalf's warm greeting and a polite bow, they relaxed, though only sightly. They lowered their weapons, sharing glances from Gandalf to Thorin before deciding to watch what transpired in front of them. Gandalf spoke easily with the Lord Elrond, his words in Elvish and very warm, looking to be happy to see the elf. Whatever apprehension he once had from the elves' initial approach, they were all but disappeared, relax by a look mirrored on my own face. 

“Farannem ‘lamhoth i udul o charad. Dagannem rim na Iant Vedui.” 

I felt that rush of euphoria again and sighed out deeply, watching as Elrond jumped off his horse and came closer to Gandalf to embrace him. Oh, how beautiful his voice was and I gripped Kili's arm to steady myself, which only drew his curious gaze away from the elf and wizard and down onto me. He looked at the elf Lord and then me, piecing together what he could before he leaned down, “What does it sound like?” 

He whispered in my ear, relishing the soft flutter of breath he earned from my body when I shuddered against the touch of his voice stroking along where thigh met the curve of fleshy cheek. “Heavenly...” I could still feel the effects of Elrond's voice over my body, a lingering wave that did not leave entirely even once he stopped talking. 

“Strange for orcs to come so close to our borders,” I closed my eyes, wishing for Elrond to never stop speaking and forced myself to open my eyes again only because if I had my eyes closed, how could I look upon him more? He strolled with an easy grace passed Gandalf, looking at and showing the wizard what must have been an orc blade before passing it to Lindir, “Something, or someone, must have drawn them near...” 

In my world surrounded by smelly dwarves who were at times crude, nothing else seemed to matter except for the sound of Elrond's heavenly voice, flowing over me steadily and throwing me into a sense of ease so unlike anything before it. 

“Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain.” 

I felt dizzy from his voice, even as I realized I almost couldn't take my eyes off of the dark haired elf. He was so handsome to me, so utterly fair and perfect with not a hair out of place, his eyes shining back with the light of the stars. “Bilbo?” 

I mutely shook my head, willing Kili to stop talking just so that I wouldn't miss a word that Elrond would speak. I wanted him like I wanted Lindir; I wanted to see if he smelled just as divine as Lindir and I certainly wanted to bury my nose into that soft looking pool of dark hair. 

“I knew Thror when he ruled under the mountain." 

Gandalf had such a blissful happy look on his face and how I could agree with him on that front. Oh, how I would count the ways for Elrond and Lindir, wishing I could bake for them and fatten them up a little so that they looked thoroughly at peace the way any Hobbit should. While it had not been my first time thinking as such, I found that my feet were nearly heavy enough to actually step towards Lindir and Elrond, ready to pull them down (for they were quite tall compared to I) and inhale deeply of the scents that clung to their skin. 

I jumped a little in surprise, not because I indeed had taken a step forward, but because Kili's hands were over my ears, pressing down so that I could only hear a faint muffle of Elrond's voice as he spoke to Thorin. I looked over at the brunette dwarf, surprise written clearly on my face and a smile when I felt Kili's hands follow my head and stay pressed over my ears. 

Now that the sounds of the Lord's voice were muffled, I could feel the ease he brought over me start to ebb slightly, my limbs once again starting to feel like they were my own. I was about to thank Kili but before I could even mouth the gesture to him, I noticed that from next to us Gloin seemed upset about something. Was he threatening Elrond? Something had clearly escalated from the time that Elrond spoke and Kili's hands covered my ears but whatever it was, Gandalf was quickly correcting the dwarf, merely informing them that Elrond would be offering us food. 

I almost laughed at the change of attitude amongst the group, so tense and distrusting before, now practically shoving their way passed Elrond for the opportunity to raid the kitchens of another home. They hadn't even really paused either, Thorin himself quickly checking with Dwalin and nearly first in line to have a chance at whatever dinner the elves would be willing to serve us. It was only too obvious what would win the heart of a dwarf and it was that thought that made me muse that maybe hobbits and dwarves weren't so different? 

After all, how different can two races be if our love of food was so great that we would risk potential danger for it? It sounded very hobbit-like to me, though only in the need for food since danger was not readily available in the Shire. I had good mind to believe that if one were to challenge a hobbit's right to food, we would be just as fierce as any dwarf, I reckon... 

When we were led into Rivendell proper, the buildings surrounding and being surrounded by gardens, trees and all manner of flowers, Elrond left us in the care of Lindir, who (through muffled hearing) instructed that we would be able to stay for as long as we wanted and were guests of his most generous Lord Elrond. He showed us to a hallway where we would be staying in rooms that would require us to share, to which I was promptly volunteered by Fili to join him and Kili in their room. 

We were then given instructions about dinner being shortly available and that we would be eating personally with Elrond as special guests. If we also wanted to, we would have the means to clean ourselves up and have an opportunity to have clean garments brought to us and for our dirty ones to be tended to. I was immensely grateful for such a courtesy, still being covered in dried troll snot as I was, and felt the need to personally thank Lindir for his hospitality. Unfortunately, I never got the chance as Kili prevented me from stepping anywhere near the elf or even exchanging any words with him. The younger of the brothers even kept his hands on my ears the entire time until he was sure Lindir was done and leaving. As soon as he dropped his hands, Lindir paused in his stroll and turned back to Gandalf, a polite nod and a quick word being said to him. 

Kili turned back around just in time to watch me being overtaken yet again by the most enchanting voice, cursing out loud even as he tried to pull me into the room I would share with the brothers. I didn't want to leave the sight of the tall brunette, didn't want a moment where I couldn't see or possibly touch him. Even when Kili started to tug me inside the room again, I grabbed the door frame, so intent on keeping that sexy elf in front of me. I was saddened when I saw that Lindir seemed to be finished speaking with Gandalf, and with a heavy heart, I watched the most handsome creature Yavanna ever gifted before a Hobbit bow and walk away. 

Once Lindir was out of sight, it was almost like he was out of mind and it felt like I was suddenly myself again, although with still a bit of a crush on the imposingly serious steward. The brothers ended up teasing me about what happened while we settled into our room, miming my voice with exaggerated pitch and gestures as if they were fainting, and I at a loss as to what even make of it. Elvish voices were amazing and I now knew why on more than occasion before my birth, my Mum traveled to Rivendell. 

Almost as soon as we were finished unpacking our things, the brothers and I were instantly set upon by elven-maids, all of whom shared with their male counterparts the ability to wash me in a blissful state of mind. Eventually Kili and Fili just had to give up and allow me to fawn over the beautiful creatures, all of whom were very friendly and very appreciative of the affection I gave and compliments I bestowed upon them. 

Besides being the objects of my affections, they were also at our service, giving us sets of clean clothing to change into for the evening while they cleaned our own. They even offered to help if we needed assistance in tying the garments correctly, bowing politely when we believed we would be fine and ushered them away. 

Dinner was only too soon and none of us had the chance to really clean ourselves as thoroughly as we probably wanted. I myself barely had enough time to wash my face using a basin before Fili was helping me into elvish robes, signet rose of color and embroidered finely in gold, tying them up even as Kili helped with his. I watched as Kili buttoned his own robes, grimacing when Fili pulled too hard when trying to comb his hair. It was worth it to see Kili curse and bemoan his brother for something as simple as combing his hair, and I couldn't help but giggle at the sight of the two. 

When we went out into the hallway to join the other members of our company, I laughed openly at the sight of the bulky Dwalin and Thorin looking so thoroughly pissed over having to actually wear elven clothing. Once assured by the brothers that both of them looked gorgeous and having to comfort the same two brothers when they were smacked by Dwalin, we headed off to dinner. 

Dinner was served in the main banquet hall, a table set for where Thorin, Gandalf and Elrond ate and another longer one set up for the rest of the company. I ended up sitting next to Balin on a rather comfortable pillow, delighting in how plush it was underneath me and even squirming just to test how soft it was. The table was laden with food fit for any Hobbit and therein, it seemed, lie the greatest problem. It truly _was_ fit for a hobbit but for a dwarf seemed a far different matter. From one end to the other, there was nothing but healthy foods; salads that nearly burst from their bowls, breads so fresh that they crunched when bitten, vegetables, golden soups, and these little rolls wrapped in rice with an arrangement of vegetables stuffed inside. 

While none of the dwarves looked particularly eager to dig in, I all too happily started, scooping great clumps of salad onto my plate, a whole roll of bread to myself, and a few of the strange rice rolls. It was during loading up my plate that I moved a bowl aside and saw just the most heavenly thing ever: mushrooms. 

Mushrooms, my heart swooned... 

Thorin, Gandalf and Elrond were coming into the room, all in a discussion about something. Though I hadn't been trying to listen for Elrond's voice, I caught the tail end of a chuckle and the wave crashed over me again. I nearly heaped a mountain of mushrooms on my plate, not even bothering to care if it made me look greedy or if it would make me look like a stuffed glutton by the end of the night. 

We also had entertainment, I was surprised to discover, a beautiful arrangement of flute, harp, and lute played by three fair elves. The female elf's fingers were deft, striking chords so gracefully along the harp, creating the most lovely of arrangements only matched by the tune of the lute next to it. They both looked so at peace, which was more than I could say for Oin who looked more than put out by the flute player's proximity. 

None of the dwarves seemed to enjoy the music, a fact that was quite sad given that it was lovely. For the time since leaving the Shire and the romp with the brothers, I was actually enjoying the idea of adventures. If such things really were a staple, of course. 

I moaned in delight, the fork full of mushrooms nearly melting on my tongue in a dazzling mixture of a wine and buttery flavor. Oh, if I thought that Elrond and Lindir's voices were heavenly before, I was just waiting at the entrance of Heaven. No, this fork full was heaven. The next one was a choir of singing elves, all petting their own hair while they hovered near to let me smell them. The next bite was Yavanna, leaning over in what her grace surely was commenting on how lovely Elrond smelled. 

I groaned in utter bliss, eating another bite and feeling my fingers clench on the table's edge. 

“Miss Baggins, are you alright?” 

I nodded mutely, taking another bite into my mouth and chewing slowly, relishing the taste slide over my tongue again. I moaned, unaware of the attention I was attracting with each bite of bliss that I groaned around. Each morsel disappeared behind teeth, forcing a moan and a squirm on my pillow. Oh, the taste was just superb, something only fit for the Valar. 

I gripped the wood harder, a load moan ripped from me when I thought of Elrond and Lindir feeding me great spoonfuls of the decadent mushrooms. Oh how gorgeous they looked, sitting next to one another, splayed like they were themselves the very subjects poems spoke of when in terms of beauty. Their dark hair cascading over shoulders, their dark eyes raking down seductively over the offered plate of mushrooms. 

I moaned around another mouthful, both from the taste and because I could see behind my eyes the very image of Lindir and Elrond offering each other a bite of the tiny things, their lips closing over ornate forks and commenting, _Is it good, Miss Baggins_...? 

“Oh, it is good,” I mumbled, groaning against another bite, startling when my fork dropped before I could get the morsels of utter delight inside. I looked around in shock, confused and wondering what was happening, surprised to see that Kili's hand was now over my mouth and his eyes staring at me as if I were crazed. 

My eyebrow raised in question at the emotion in his eyes, lust so blatant and cheeks so flushed, I almost couldn't pull away from the sight. From over his shoulder, Fili's look mirrored his perfectly, his tongue licking his lips when he saw me staring. A clearing of a throat caught my attention though and I turned my head only to have my heart race with panic and my stomach drop. Everyone at the table was staring at me, their faces a mix of horror, wonder, and flushed cheeks, even from the most steadfast of us. Even Balin and Gloin were looking at me as if I were some startling new creature, their cheeks flushed from embarrassment. 

Everyone at the table was like that, well, all except for Ori whose ears and eyes were closed and sheltered by the hands of Dori, who sputtered and did his best to look everywhere but at me. If I were not horrified by my behavior before that moment, I was thoroughly done so as soon as I looked at the table where Elrond, Thorin, and Gandalf sat. Lindir looked at me, poised and proper as ever, though an eyebrow was raised in silent curiosity. Gandalf himself tried to hide his chuckling behind a table napkin, succeeding only a little and definitely not bothering to hide his murmured amusement over the nature of hobbits. 

No, if that weren't enough, I had to come face to face with the scandalized looks from both Thorin and Elrond. Thorin looked at me in a kind of manner that said that he was not even sure what to do about my spectacle. His lip was curled with a sneer of distaste but his eyes were just bewildered, his cheeks flushed and almost looking as if he were undecided about whether or not to take me from the room and berate me or just shrug me off as a lost cause. Elrond himself was the more graceful of the two when it came to facial reactions, though how an elf could look graceful with his jaw dropped and his cheeks flushed, I would have no idea. 

Even the music had stopped, players standing still with their fingers and mouths poised, unable to continue out of shock... 

I averted my gaze and dropped my head into my hands, wishing so desperately for the ground to just swallow me up completely... 

I was glad that the rest of the dinner went by uneventfully, and much to everyone else's relief, quietly from my end. Kili and Fili were teasing me about it, moaning under their breaths so that they could show me what I looked like. Every second they did so, I just wanted to curl up and die somewhere, my entire face so red that I was sure I would die from all the blood in my head. 

“Miss Baggins,” Thorin's voice shocked me out of my horror, a voice curling against the back of my neck. I looked up at him, his presence silencing the brothers next to me, and his gaze boring down at me with a masked expression. He really did know how to make a girl feel embarrassed, I lamented, even as I met his eyes and nodded silently in question. “I'd have a word with you later.” 

Oh, how I was going to get scolded for this fiasco, I knew... 

I sighed, not wanting to die or be yelled at until I _wished_ I would die, and nodded to him. I would at least resign to my fact about the entire matter. 

As soon as Thorin was gone, the brothers just burst out in laughter at the look I must have been wearing on my face; it seemed with their esteemed leader gone as well, the group lightened up and joined in on the teasing. Though it was utterly embarrassing to have Dwalin reenact the face I had made, I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the display. 

It seemed that even without mushrooms, this adventure could be a good thing, after all. 


	14. Skin-Listener

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo explores Rivendell...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Lilyoftheval for suggesting the more commonly known term of the Ear Touch!
> 
> Translation notes:  
> Periannath - Hobbit
> 
> Edit:   
> I ended up going back and changing something that had been bothering me.

Rivendell was beautiful in every meaning of the word. 

After dinner, I left the company of the group and finally found some time just to explore the beautiful home of the elves. I set a leisurely sort of pace about the entire thing, strolling casually down hallways and greeting elves whose voices flowed over me like water. They were friendly and all too willing to show courtesy, gestures that I had grown to miss greatly. It did my heart wonders to see such tall graceful creatures bow and nod politely to even one as tiny as I was. 

In the comforts of Elrond's home, I also had the chance to have a moment for myself without the overbearing presence of a dwarf hovering over me like an overprotective nanny. The freedom of movement, the echo of sensations from the sounds of Rivendell all around provided a retreat in its own way. 

I strolled through the courtyards, amazed by how healthy the gardens looked, well tended most likely by the magic of the elves and preening all the more for it. Even the trees looked well cared for, hovering over walkways so that even the shortest of elves had to dip low underneath to avoid running into branches. Rivendell was truly a beautiful place. 

I explored with eager eyes, wanting to see what each open doorway had to offer; more than once, I was pulled off by a group of elves who coo'ed over the sight of a tiny Periannath as they called me, their fingers in my dirty honey colored curls and looking as if they hadn't the slightest care if it were gross to the touch. Honestly, as their voices coated my mind in bliss, I didn't care either.

Some of the elves I ran into knew the common tongue and others did not but even when our inability to communicate became evident, I found that they were still gentle and friendly, their pure lyrical tones setting me at ease. I still had no idea why the dwarves disliked them so... They really were such a lovely people.

When my strolling found me in one of the main courtyards where many elves chatted and delighted each other with poetry, I sat down to listen and was once again caught in the blissful tones of their voices. I was surprised to see as I listened to the elves read lines of poetry that some of the elves looked as euphoric as I surely did. Did they really appreciate such things so much?

I looked around the courtyard, just wanting to see if the elves truly did take to their arts so deeply, but I saw that only a few of them looked as I did. Their faces were relaxed, their eyes closed and some even swayed from where they sat; one was dozing lightly, her eyes opening every so often when the reader stopped. I noticed the elf next to me, his hair silver like moonlight and long to the waist, held back with braids; his eyes were closed and he swayed as our poet motioned with his hands of the beauty of his words. 

I tugged a little at the sleeve of the elf and watched him as he slowly opened his bright green eyes, perhaps only noticing me now, though he smiled despite the fact that I interrupted his near trance. “Yes, periannath?”

“What is this place?”

He looked at me curiously and I followed his hand as he brought it up to his head to scratch at his hairline, noticing that it was the same spot that itched on my own head when I spoke. “This is a place to listen.”

He answered simply before closing his eyes again so he could return his attention to the words of the poet; only a moment later, he was looking down at me again and staring, his green eyes searching until he smiled at me brightly. He leaned over and put his hand to my shoulder while the other one hovered over my eyes, directing me to close them, “Close your eyes,” He whispered in my ear, my body going slack under his voice, “It allows you to focus without the distraction of sight...”

Already the effects were felt, the elf's voice next to me washing away to be replaced by the words of the poet. I could not understand them as they were spoken in the elvish tongue but it did not matter; he was speaking of something fierce for the euphoria all around me swelled. “His words only paint one layer of the tale. Feel the passion in his voice,” The unknown words curbed the euphoria, belying an undertone of sadness in the poem, “His sadness over loss."

"His nervousness for his words being heard.”

The elf in front of us was indeed nervous, though it was not something one could determine from the steady way his words were spoken. As I listened to him, it became apparent that this was probably his first time reading out loud to the elves who listened here, elves who were like me and could hear with their bodies. The elf next to me stayed close, his scent drifting over me a hint of lavender and berries making me sigh into his steady touch.

“AH!” I jumped, feeling the elf next to me as well do so; I opened my eyes to see the elves sitting up and looking for the person who would so rudely interrupt their unknown commune. “Bilbo! There you are! Come along now, we're having a dinner of our own!!” 

As much as I wanted to be upset at Bofur for the interruption, even I could not deny the sensation his voice brushed against the tops of my feet, tickling happily and forcing a giggle from my lips. It seemed that the elves too were unable to deny their own reactions to his voice, some of them looking confused and others giggling. Before Bofur could continue to talk and interrupt the group, I stood up and apologized to the others and went off to join the dwarf. He looked confused enough as it was by the fact that his presence somehow made a few of the elves laugh all at the same time. 

“Miss Bilbo?”

I stopped and looked back to the silver haired elf that I had previously sat next to; he stood from his seated position and crossed the short distance to stand in front of me. I was surprised by his height because while he did not look that much taller than me while I sat next to him, he was indeed quite taller, taller even than Elrond! He nodded to Bofur politely before bending over and taking my hand in his and kissing it lightly, “Should you wish for the company of another skin-listener, please do not hesitate to find me again.”

I nodded in a daze, eager to take up such an offer again just for the company of someone besides Gandalf who knew what it was like to listen to the world through one's own body.

As we left the courtyard, I was surprised to find that the sun was setting behind the mountains, bathing Rivendell in a soft orange glow that made the stone statues and vined pillars glow in creamy shades, speckled with orange when the sun cast at the right angle.

Bofur and I talked about what we had been up to since separating after dinner, our pace casual as we returned to the hall where we stayed with the rest of the company. I was horrified, of course, when I saw how they were cooking dinner but I guess I was not surprised by it. I thought they had raided another pantry, a host of stolen goods laid around an equally stolen table, but no. That was far from it. Amazingly enough, they had actually made a fire in the middle of the hallway, the means of how they did so currently still being broken apart by Bifur. Well, there was the stolen table, if it were any consolation prize... But really, what did I really expect from a bunch of dwarves who pillaged my pantry without a second thought? They would think nothing of destroying pilfered furniture to cook pilfered food and eat them on pilfered dish ware.

I decided to just let it all go, shrug it off and just allow it to wash over me just as the voices of the elves did. I sat on the ground next to Bifur, earning myself a grunted few words in that guttural tone I'd heard a few times before and kept the dwarves company. 

“So Bilbo, what did he mean by skin-listener?”

Bofur's voice tickled my feet again and I looked up at his question, seeing that he was getting a few links of sausages ready for roasting. All around me, the dwarves slowed whatever they were doing, readying their ears for gossip of some sort. Really, sometimes they were as bad as hobbit wives! At the same time, Fili noticed me in the hall again and he separated from his brother's side to plop down next to me; I smiled when I felt the brush of his arm against my own, a casual push of fingers so that they touched my thigh. 

“Skin-listener?”

Ori piped up, my fingers twitching under the sensation of furry whispers on my palms. 

“Yea, I heard one of them call her a skin-listener. What did he mean?”

By now all of the dwarves around were curious and leaning forward or sitting around the fire. Even Dwalin, who was never one for gossip was "sharpening" his knife in a way that lessened whenever someone would speak. I decided that I would tell the others about what my ears were like because honestly, it was never a secret as much as just something that didn't pop up in normal conversation.

“Well, he meant that we were able to hear with our ears-”  
“What's so special about that?”

Nori interrupted, only to be pulled down by Dori who told him to shut up and let me speak, “It's not the way you think,” I corrected as I eyed Fili and Kili, “It's actually feeling with our ears. I've had it since birth; in fact, I didn't even know that no one else in the Shire had it until I was a child. I just thought it was a natural thing. When my Mum learned of it, she ended up just calling it the Ear Touch.”

I shrugged, thinking that my explanation was good enough and for someone like Gandalf and an elf, it probably would have been but as I looked around at the confused stares of the dwarves, I realized that I wasn't talking to the brightest race in Middle-Earth. I decided to dumb it down a bit.

“Well,” I cleared my throat, “When I hear a sound, I can feel it too. Like, when you came into the courtyard, Bofur, and they laughed when they heard you-”

“My voice sounds funny?” I giggled at the question, my toes curling. Next to me, I heard Fili's deep chuckle, “No, it _feels_ funny. When I hear your voice, it feels like a tickle on my feet.”

Bofur looked surprised at that, and using his surprise Ori quickly asked, quill and paper ready, “What does my voice sound like, Miss Bilbo?”

“Well,” I smiled, not even believing I was having such a conversation; in all my years since Mum's death, no one had ever asked me how anything felt like, “My hands feel soft, like, really really soft. Like I'm holding a ball of fluff.”

Ori seemed to be embarrassed by the statement, blushing shyly and hastily pointing his head downward to write in his book. “Mine?”

Dori leaned in, curious as well. “Like I'm drinking a mouth full of wine.” He seemed to puff up his chest at that, proud about the aspect that he produced such an effect in me. 

Down the line, everyone asked me, aside from Fili and Kili who did not need to and certainly did their best not to let everyone know just _how_ they had discovered the effect their voices had on me. I was surprised when even Dwalin growled out his desire to know what his voice sounded, followed by the polite inquiry that Balin was indeed also intrigued. Both of them knowing that their reactions were so alike made them grin but Dwalin seemed to grumble about something when I told him how soft his touch usually was on my cheek.

Amidst the jeers of Dwalin being a giant softie underneath all the layers of fur and muscle and tattoo, the group looked surprised when Thorin emerged from his room, a quick glance to the fire and then the rest of the group before heading off down the hallway.

“I must confess, Miss Baggins, but I'm a little curious how his voice sounds to you.”

Balin's voice was cheery as he asked and I looked at him with a bit of a lost expression on my face; next to me, even Fili and Kili were looking at me, the question obviously attracting their attention. I just sighed and shrugged, “I wish I could tell you, but, his is a bit more difficult.”


	15. The King Under the Mountain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and Thorin finally have their chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who waited up for this chapter, I do apologize for its lateness.

As I sunk into the hot waters of the freshly drawn bath, I groaned out the observation that the elven baths of Rivendell were almost as sinfully decadent as the mushrooms served during dinner. The water was hot against my skin, turning it rosy almost instantly, made even more heavenly when I leaned back and dipped my hair to soak it.

Fili was truly a wonder, I smiled in recollection, because it had been him who caught me while I was in bed resting for a moment. I breathed in against the side of the tub, remembering the way he leaned over me, his body covering mine as he whispered into the skin of my neck that he had drawn me a bath. I was surprised by the gesture and felt the urge to kiss him, one that he did not object to, before he was playfully pushing me into the adjoining chamber.

Truly the sight of the inlaid marble tub was something one would start wars for, filled with steaming water and given the privacy for a very very long soak. I certainly was going to take full advantage of such a bath after days of wondering around in the wild, sweat clinging to my layers and mud and troll snot sticking to that.

I was slow about how I washed my hair, massaging my curly locks and groaning when I felt the built up tension from days worth of traveling just scrub away into a foam of berry smelling soaps. When I rinsed my hair out, relishing how clean it felt, I almost couldn't contain my pleasure at the idea of being able to get into a clean shift and sleep buried underneath warm blankets. The idea that the brothers would be joining me was another reason why I was particularly happy about the fantasy.

I wasn't sure at all what was going on between us, never having a real moment to talk about it between being made busy while on the road, being chased by orcs, and resting during our first afternoon in Rivendell. In a sense, I wanted to know what the brothers thought of me and what their ideas about the entire arrangement was between us but... 

I sighed because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn't really want to put a name on it yet. The brothers were young, that much I gathered from the company and the fact that they were nearly the youngest members of said company didn't really give me any confidence on the matter either. Thinking about the kiss the two brothers shared as well, I wasn't sure if this behavior was a normal thing amongst the dwarves. Did their culture just think that such things were proper and commonplace? Hobbits themselves were very laid back creatures, but even we frowned on cousins and siblings being so close when they were past their tweens.

While I was not entirely sure on what exactly to think of the arrangement that I had found myself in with Fili and Kili, I knew that I did not want it to end. I wanted to see where it would go and I would be lying to myself if their affections were not great for my mood, both mentally and physically....

Having soaked and washed for long enough, I got up from the tub and drained it, slipping a drying sheet around my body and heading back into the room where my shifts were tucked into my bag. Kili was dozing lightly when I entered the room, Fili lounging on the bed, eyes finding me instantly when I came back into the room. I felt his eyes on me as I went to my bag, kneeling down on the ground to shift through the contents until I pulled out a clean shift. Those eyes bore into my back as I went for my comb on the nearby table, and still they were on me as I retreated back into the bathing chamber for some privacy. 

When I returned to the room decently covered, Fili's eyes were still glued to me and beckoning me over. I felt my feet weighted, almost unable to move under such a sensual gaze until he grinned and motioned me over with his finger. His arms opened up for me and I allowed myself to be pulled down on top of him, my body flush against his own as he allowed me to get comfortable, my thighs trapping him. 

“Let me comb your hair for you.”

I was growing more aware that this was the way of Fili, the want to nurture and comfort and provide a sort of intimacy. It left me breathless, feeling his fingers cover mine to take the brush from me and lean my head forward against his chest so that he could run the teeth of the comb lightly against my scalp. I hummed low in my chest, content with this pampering that made warmth pool down my belly. 

Fili's thick fingers played in my curls, his hands skilled in taking care of one's hair and running over skin to make them gasp and quiver. A tap on the nearby side table; the brush set down. Fili's hands were in my hair again, pulling me up so that I could kiss him, languid and so very different from how fiercely Kili kissed. Kili was all speed and force, his wild personality so evident in such an intimate gesture. When Fili kissed, he kissed deeply, tongue delving into my mouth and coaxing my own tongue to explore.

His hands and how they gripped my body were also different from Kili, gripping with the entirety of his palm so that he possessed in a gentle way that was wholly satisfying. Our bodies were heated, sliding against one another, his hands pushing me to rock into the hardening bulge in his trousers. 

A knocking on the door interrupted us, making us pull apart and look at the offending thing. I could tell Fili wanted to ignore it but duty prevailed and he was rolling us so that I landed next to Kili. I watched as he pushed himself off the bed with a huff, a hand running through his own locks that were loose and unbraided before he opened the door. 

Thorin was as grim faced as ever, eyeing Fili before looking over to the bed with a quick glance. Instantly I remembered that Thorin asked to have a word with me and I lunged off the bed, much to the surprise of everyone in the room and went to the elven robe that was still left in the bathroom. I tugged it on quickly, tying it roughly into place before I was back in the main room and looking at the two dwarves speak with one another, hushed voices in guttural tones before Fili looked at me. 

“Don't take too long.”

I smiled at him in passing, following Thorin as he led the way back to what looked to be his own bedroom. I was surprised by it but one did want privacy when there were still dwarves in the hallway, swash buckling around like loons as they danced to the tune of their instruments, fueled by elvish drink. Thorin merely shook his head at the display and opened his door, stepping aside to allow me in first before he closed it with a soft click.

Once we were in the room, the muffled antics of the dwarves on the other side seemed to blur out of existence until I was aware of only the thudding beat of my own heart in my ears. Thorin was unaware of my trepidation about being alone with him in the same room, going around to his desk to casually pull off his furred coat. I noticed again that he was in his normal garb again, looking all too much like the imposing dwarf Leader that the elven robes from earlier hid. 

I was nervous, silent waiting for him to speak. My palms were sweaty in anticipation. I could tell I was breathing more heavily as well, a fact that I tried to control to no avail.

"Do you know why I've asked to speak with you?"

Thorin's voice rippled down my body in a touch that made me take a minuscule step forward. Already his voice affected me in such a way, already my breath was irretrievably lost. Though I should have known the answer to his question, I still found that I was dumbfounded by it, completely caught unaware by it. It was something that I did not expect and was therefore, unable to answer given the sudden dryness of my throat.

"About the trolls?"

I thought back to the morning where Thorin said he would thank me, instantly feeling my face flush when thought of in terms of how Fili and Kili had thanked me for saving their lives. Thorin seemed interested in this answer, his eyebrow raising and staring at me, his blue eyes seemingly always studying me.

"No," He offered, voice low and nearly drawing it out. Assessing, "You did play for time, that much was true but," Again he stopped, slowly crossing the room at his own unhurried pace until he stood just slightly to my side. "I will not lay my gratitude entirely at your feet."

His voice was like fingers trailing down my back, slowing as he spoke, patient in their pacing and not at all grabbing like the voices of the two brothers. I could feel how sweaty my palms were, clenched at my sides until Thorin leaned down and looked straight into my eyes.

"Breathe."

I let out the breath I unknowingly held, sucking in a deep breath of air. My heart thrummed in my chest and I felt as if I were sweating all over, my shift almost sticking uncomfortably to my back. Thorin seemed pleased by this, though his expression was unchanging. The only way I could tell was the proximity of his own breathing and the wisps of sensation it lingered over my back. Patient, careful, wanting to show that I could stop it at any moment.

"Guess again."

My mind was blank. Thorin was just so very close to me, his eyes burning a cold fire deep into my belly. I was wet, horrendously wet just from Thorin staring at me and talking to me. He waited patiently for my answer until he turned his eyes away, his bulky form graceful like an animal stepping out of view and disappearing behind me. Out of sight, my thoughts started to come back to me. I remembered the dinner and the scene I made there.

"No."

His voice curled against my hip, tracing over the small jut of a hip bone. I shuddered at the feel of it, wondering how Thorin even knew what I was thinking. Was I really always so obvious?

"Guess again?"

I offered, trying to regain my sense of composure with a lighthearted chuckle but Thorin's response was a low hum in his throat, a rumble in his chest that made me shudder, his voice traveling up my thighs. I was helpless against such a powerful voice, such an assured tone that knew exactly what it wanted to do at all times. Thorin came up from my other side, just out of view, and I could smell his musk, so heavy and thick in the air that I had to stop myself from just reaching out to touch him, to put my face deep in his hair.

"Close your eyes."

He commanded, voice deep, and instantly the connection was made between the courtyard earlier where I spoke with the elf. Had Thorin been watching then? Had he been listening when I spoke with the others about the Ear Touch? I wasn't sure of any of the answers. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. I could feel myself shaking, a heady mixture of desire and apprehension from being so close to Thorin.

"Close your eyes."

Thorin repeated, a bit more force in his tone than before, and I helpless but to obey as I felt the sensation of fingers run along my spine again. He was watching me. I could feel that with my eyes closed, his eyes constantly watching me and noting what to make of my reactions to his voice. If I liked them or not.

I startled when his hands steadied on my waist, jumping and trying to pull away but his grip was firm. Stay. It ordered. I obeyed. I didn't want to obey. I wanted to obey. I wanted to go back to where Fili was and burrow into his side. I wanted to stay here and yank Thorin close.

Thorin's hands were gone from my waist, slowing sliding off so that I would not startle again. I felt them slid to the front of my stomach, tracing upwards until they came to the ties of the elven robes. They pulled with little effort and I gasped as he slowly let the robes fall from my shoulders. He pulled back, fingers a wisp of roughened skin until I almost followed them. I felt those eyes on me still, watching.

I felt the hint of fingertips, tracing the edge of a collar bone. I nearly startled.

"Steady."

He whispered and the soft tone of his voice made me relax.

Again, those fingers trailed over my collarbone, dipping into the hollow of my neck and following the path until they caught on the fabric of my shift. They stilled and I could feel his eyes on me, boring into me and watching my face for what my emotions were telling him.

"You think I chose to ignore what I saw that night?"

I released another breath held too long, feeling his fingers press against my chest. Steady, they compelled again. Relax. I steadied as best I could until his fingers pulled away. "The bed is in front of you. I want you to walk forward until you feel it."

I was excited and terrified by the command, his voice trailing the curve of my neck before I felt his presence behind me, a hand that acted as the center of my world, the very center of my entire being. I was so aroused I could barely think straight. A slight pressure to indicate to move forward and I did so, a hesitant step in darkness. I only took a step, scared before I stopped. Again, the pressure was there, the center of the world. Again, it pushed. I moved forward, each step harder than the last until I nearly collapsed against the edge of the soft mattress, my nerves wracked from fear and being so close to orgasm that I hardly knew if I wanted to run or stay.

"Sit on the bed, facing downward from the edge."

That voice was pushing into my dripping sex, making me tremble even as I lifted myself up onto the bed and situated myself to his liking. Within a moment, Thorin's still clothed form was pressed against my back, his hand pushing back against my belly until I understood to scoot back. "Do you want to keep your clothes or no?"

A simple question was all it was and really the first time Thorin bothered to ask my opinion on this whole affair. I felt him adjust himself behind me, his powerful legs on either side on my body. I wanted to take off my clothes so that I could feel his armor against my sweaty skin. My hands went to do so and he allowed me the time I needed to pull my shift over my head and set it aside.

I felt him adjust behind me again, this time pulling me entirely to his front so there was nothing left between us, the heat from his body conflicting with the cool feel of his armor.

"My gratitude for your stalling, burglar."

Thorin said simply before he set his hands upon me, roughened palms spreading over thighs and coaxing them apart with a firm touch until they were utterly spread to press against his. I felt open, so exposed that I couldn't control my breathing, overwhelmed by the heat of his body and his steady breathing behind me. I flinched at the touch of him upon my thigh, only to shudder at the feel of a scratchy kiss pressed to the back of my neck.

"Steady, Miss Baggins."

I tried to steady but the command went straight to my core, only succeeding when he pressed another kiss to the back of my neck. I felt his thick fingers move to my chest, tracing over the line of my collar bone again before dipping down to palm a breast in his hand.

"Tell me where you feel mine."

Again, I shuddered at the feel of voice sliding up my thighs, my mind horridly blank until I forced myself to calm a little and remember what Thorin was talking about. Where I felt his? His what? I shuddered again when he rumbled a sound low in his chest, and knew he meant his voice. He was speaking of the conversation from earlier out in the hallway; where do I feel his voice?

"Everywhere."

"Tell me."

He whispered, his fingers circling my nipple before pinching it gently. "Calves." I gasped when his voice trailed along my calves, whispers of touch until gone. Thorin's fingers continued their treatment of my nipple, pinching it and pulling it while I felt his other hand mirror the treatment to its twin. "Now?"

"Neck..."

I groaned, leaning my head back so that I could rest it along his shoulder, breathing his scent in deeply before he moved his face and rubbed his beard against my cheeks in a gesture that reminded me of a nuzzle. His fingers moved lower, slowly tracing patterns across my stomach, my breath gasping when he found a spot that was particularly sensitive.

He rumbled again low in his chest...

"Thighs!" I gasped, rocking a little into it as the sensation trailed up. To my surprise, Thorin growled again, lower, using the full range of his deep baritone vocal chords. "Inside me!"

I bucked off the mattress, gasping from how sensitive I now was, cursing the fact that the elf had spoken so easily of the knowledge of how to enhance the effects of the Ear Touch. Again, Thorin's fingers trailed lower until they were on my thighs, rubbing deep soothing circles into the flesh, every so often asking me to tell him where I felt a certain pitch of his voice. Each time I answered, I felt that part of my body's sensitivity swell, my desire wet and aching from being so long neglected under Thorin's tormenting voice.

"Spread them."

My legs had steadily closed since Thorin's initial touch. I moaned at the feel of the air as I spread my own legs again, the cool air making me shiver in delight. I bucked in pleasure when I felt thick fingers delve into my folds, stroking all the while his other hand worked my clit in short circles. Oh, how skilled Thorin was, his fingers dipping inside me every few strokes just as he would tease my engorged nub. I couldn't stop the moans from coming, from hanging in the air as he expertly teased me, bringing me up to just the brink of release before he stopped.

He just stopped.

I whined at his stilled fingers, willing him to continue, but he was still. They moved to trace patterns along my thighs again, the fingers leaving cool prints of moisture when they moved. I squirmed against his chest, trying to coax him into continuing but he ignored my silent pleas, intent on doing what he was doing. I felt the return of his lips on my shoulder, pressing wet kisses along the skin there until I had calmed and relaxed.

A moment later, his fingers returned where I needed them, slowly working back up to their previous pace, delving deeply inside me. I moaned at the pleasure of it, the need to buck up into them. The second I did buck, he stopped again. He did not continue, even though I cursed at him. He was patient. He would wait for me to calm myself, his fingers soothing patterns into my thighs.

He would wait.

I relaxed.

"You are so responsive."

He whispered into my ear, nibbling at the lobe, as he dipped his fingers back inside me and added another finger. Now working me open with two fingers, I nearly came apart, gasping even as I struggled to control what my body's natural reactions were. I needed to stay put if he were to continue, let him control exactly when I would get to experience pleasure. I leaned my face into his neck, blindly planting a kiss on his collar before adjusting and succeeding in kissing the skin of his neck. I nearly came undone right then and there just from the fact that his neck was covered in sweat, that he was feeling this just as much as I was.

His deep groan answered my thought, his fingers working me faster until I was helpless but to gasp, choosing to bite down onto the fabric of his collar.

"You want to cum that badly, do you?"

His fingers stilled, ripping a growl from my throat that I felt him chuckle in response to. For all my ferocity could work wonders against a hobbit, this was Thorin, the King Under the Mountain. It would not count for much at all.

"Please!" I hissed out, feeling his fingers resume but only slightly, leisurely. Tortuously languid. I relaxed again, just because in the past, it would appease him to again work me harder. He chuckled again, a slight rise and fall of his chest before he adjusted the angle of his fingers and curled them inside me. He added a third finger to his ministrations, pumping into me quickly, urging me to push back into it now so that I would feel him deeply.

I was lost, so irretrievably lost.

It was all too much, the pumping of his fingers, the stroking of my clit. It was all too much, all too mind numbing.

Thorin's voice was in his my ear, a growl of a command that he learned would go straight to my desire.

"Cum for me. I would feel you come apart from my fingers."

I tried to contain it but I couldn't help but to nearly shout his name as I came.

Thorin's hand could not muffle my shout because of his hands being otherwise occupied but I did not think he even wanted it to be contained.

I rode the waves of my orgasm, shuddering around his fingers and listening to him growl from behind me, cursing when my inner walls clamped down around him.

I was unable to mask how heavily I was panting, my limbs twitching from the aftereffects of such an intense orgasm.

Thorin stroked me, allowing me to ride out the remainder of my orgasm, his soaked fingers working against me so gently that I felt my body lean forward just to hold onto the pleasure.

I opened my eyes finally, turning back to look at him, seeing his pupils blown wide with arousal. I stared as he slowly brought his hand up to his mouth, licking at the juices there before pressing two fingers into my mouth. I moaned around the digits, tasting how exquisite, tangy and salty I was.

Thorin gave me a moment before he pulled away, moving me to lay down while he cleaned up. He came back, his hands still slightly wet from the water and urged me to sit up, his hands going for my shift and helping me back into it. As I struggled with fingers that did not want to listen, he got up from the bed again and went to where my elven robes still laid pooled on the floor, bending over to pick them up. He held them out for me, spread in a way that indicated he would help me into them. My legs were almost boneless, useless for a moment when I tried to stand.

He was just as patient as before, waiting for me to find my own pace until I was in front of him and slipping into the robes. His fingers made easy work of the ties, smoothing out fabric, before he ran a hand through my still drying hair.

"Get some rest." He murmured, his hand a comforting presence against my head before he stepped away.

I wasn't even quite sure what any of it meant. I didn't understand why he didn't take his own pleasure and I certainly didn't understand if it was because of something I did. I breathed out, unable to really process much of anything now that my brain was utterly destroyed from my orgasm.

I turned around and left his bedroom, grateful when I saw that none of the other dwarves seemed to have noticed the shout that came from my lips earlier. I went back to my room, closing the door and saw Fili and Kili on the bed, the younger of the two now sleeping fully and Fili waiting for me. When his eyes saw me, he drank me in from top to bottom and motioned for me to join them on the bed.

Eagerly I joined him, hardly understanding the smile that Fili had on his lips or even when he kissed me deeply, only knowing that I was wanted and that he would provide what I needed.


	16. A Lazy Day in Rivendell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo tries to enjoy a peaceful day in Rivendell but the Durins make that difficult...

I woke that morning with a mumble and a mouthful of brown hair.

Blearily I opened my eyes to the warm morning light streaming through the windows and discovered that it was a gorgeous day, made especially more gorgeous by the fact that I was snuggled up to a sleeping dwarf with another at my back. Under my arm, the hard line of Kili's stomach slowly rose and fell, a constant pattern that I relished even as I spooned myself against his back and squeezed. Against my back, Fili was breathing slowly, a constant presence that made my stomach flutter. I was content with the sleeping arrangement, I realized. I was happy that I was there with the brothers. 

Warmth emanated from Kili, his heat easily felt through his blue tunic, and I -under the spell of whim – slipped my fingers underneath his shirt so that I could press my palm against his stomach. Kili groaned awake at the contact, mumbling about something until he adjusted in bed to turn his head and look at me. I watched as a smile spread over his face before he laid back down, content to lay there.

All of us stayed together for a few minutes more before I felt Kili tense and sit up in bed, carefully removing my arm before he groaned about getting up. He was ungraceful in how he practically rolled off the bed, hand in his hair and pulling at the knots that seemed to be a constant for his locks. Mumbling something about a much needed bath, I watched him disappear behind the bathing chamber door.

From next to me, Fili stirred, turning around so that he hugged his pillow and breathed back into a restful sleep. He did not seem ready in the slightest to move and I grinned at the fact that Fili was a late sleeper as compared to his brother. He seemed all too happy to just bury himself under blankets all morning if one would let him. The pattern of his breathing was just as soothing as his brother's had been, the slight rise and fall, making me lean over and kiss between exposed shoulder blades. 

That was another thing that was happily discovered last night after I returned from Thorin's room; enjoying the feeling of skin contact and the texture of all things, Fili was a nude sleeper when he was allowed to be. He sprawled under the blanket and pulled me close, even if I tried to get away. Kili was on the opposite end of that spectrum, choosing to wear breeches and his tunic, not really one for the casual nature of the nude. It was a surprise given that in their day to day lives, Kili seemed to the more rambunctious and casual of the two, but I enjoyed the thought that I was learning more about them. 

Fili was delectable though; half covered by blankets and looking every bit like a lounging animal, a King of a Kingdom, though his territory only extended to the bed and his subjects only included me at the moment. I leaned over him, letting my fingers run lines down his back, enjoying the way he remained undisturbed despite my touch. There was something easy about being with Fili, his very nature so approachable and providing the need of stability in a crazed adventure where anything could be uncertain. In a way, he reminded me of Thorin. Our solemn leader was like that too. Both of them were like the central point of a maelstrom, steady despite all the chaos around them.

I was suddenly reminded of Thorin's hand at my lower back last night, of how I felt it was like the center of the world. I leaned down to rest my head against Fili's back, idly playing with a few strands of his blonde hair as I closed my eyes. Thorin's eyes stared at me in the darkness, their strength unyielding and his touch assured from what my body told him I wanted. I never felt so exposed before and the thought of it was both nerve racking and intoxicating. 

Last night Thorin's intensity was something to be admired but having never done anything like that before, I was at a loss as to what to think about it over all. Still, I could not deny how relaxed I felt afterwards, so entirely open about the entire thing. I was intrigued by the very idea of what was shown to me, passion and intensity kept below the surface.

“Hmm? Good morning, Miss Hobbit.”

When I opened my eyes to the sound of Fili's voice, hoarse with sleep and his eyes still shut in contentment, I smiled because he looked handsome. He looked inviting. 

“Come on, you two, breakfast is probably being devoured even as we speak!”

Breakfast was indeed being served, we discovered. It took us long enough to get up and get dressed, noticing with a glee that the elves had left our clean clothes on the tables directly outside our rooms. I was happy to be in my own clothes again, the fabric tight where needed and finally feeling a bit like myself again. Oh, it wasn't that elvish clothes weren't nice, it was just that getting back into one's clean clothes was like putting on an old sweater that you loved. It just felt comforting. 

Breakfast was something a bit more appropriate for the dwarves, now laden with meats that I was sure had _nothing_ at all to do with the fact that a fire had been in the hallway the night before. Elrond and Gandalf were absent from the breakfast, as was the dinner music from the day previous. The dwarves looked better for it, happily digging into their plates with gusto and joking about how jovial their night was. 

Sitting between Fili and Kili, I tried to concentrate on my food, every so often noticing that I was staring at Thorin with almost an intent close on stalkerish. He ate not at all unlike the others, eating much of the same things too, but I couldn't help but stare as he chewed on every delectable bite. I was transfixed by the way his jaw moved when he chewed, the way one could glimpse a flash of white teeth before closing around a fork. 

Look away! 

I snapped my head away, realizing that I had been caught staring, desperately willing the red off my cheeks and only barely succeeding into cramming some food into my mouth to distract myself. His eyes were still on me, focused and making me squirm. I was relieved when Fili pulled me into conversation, thankful for the distraction and when Kili tried to steal some food off my plate, resulting in a quick slap of his hand.

I felt my courage leave me when I saw Thorin stand from the table, his plate clean and belly full from what he told Dwalin. I watched him as he leaned down to tell Dwalin something and then turn to come down the table, exactly in the direction of the three of us. I was frozen, shocked into a stillness that could only be broken by hobbit instincts!

When Balin stopped Thorin to speak with him for a moment, I went lax and slithered under the table, melting away from the prospect and retreating to a safe location. It was only under a table but I didn't have time to be picky! I could hear Fili laughing at my antics and Kili was looking underneath the table, only to have a foot in his face for his efforts. 

“Where did Miss Baggins disappear off to?”

Fili tried to stifle his laughter and Kili was no better, earning another kick from me when his reached a hand to run along my ankle. Underneath the table, I was happy that none of them could see the flush on my cheeks from their voices sliding over me, gripping my thighs and kneading soft cheeks.

“You must have just missed her, Thorin?”

The brothers were utterly horrible at hiding secrets. They kept laughing and their faces would be painfully open to the answer that Thorin could guess. I watched him from under the table, seeing his heavily booted feet go the edge of the table and brace like he would dip underneath to check.

“How was your night?”

I blinked at the strange question, directed to the brothers and sounding a bit like concern? Even Thorin's voice trembled up my back, timid and not anything like its normal self. “Uneventful, as usual.”

Kili replied, his voice teasing at my butt cheek. At least that was normal. 

“Nothing unusual?”

Thorin's voice timidly slid along my collarbone, disappearing softly.

“Nope, all of us slept like babes.”

Fili's teasing voice mirrored his brother's but pinched when he emphasized the last word. I waited for Thorin's response to the answer, watching his steady feet drag against the stone floor before going to turn away. “If you see Miss Baggins again, tell her it's wasteful to leave a plate unfinished.”

Thorin's deep voice growled out, sounding irritated and annoyed before I saw his boots walk away from the table. It was only when he left the dining room that I climbed back up from under the table and situated myself between the brothers. “A true burglar!!”

Nori commented with a laugh while I looked at Fili and Kili, who were still trying to hide their chuckles. Noticing my glare, Fili just shook his head and pointed down to my plate, “He wants you to eat.”

Even as I picked up my fork again, I looked at the brothers, noting their grins. “Is it really considered that wasteful?”

It was not very Hobbit-like to not finish the food on one's plate but I wanted to confirm if it was the culture difference between the dwarves and hobbits. We didn't think badly of a plate with food on it still but because of our great love it, we weren't obliged to finish it either. If one were full, they would have to store the rest for another day. Was it different for dwarves?

The brothers just looked at me from both sides, staring at me curiously before Fili went back to eating his food with Kili doing the same, though he paused long enough to push my plate towards me. “Eat.”

His voice curled possessively, teasingly, happily. I dug back into my food. 

I avoided Thorin afterwards with a tenacity that should anyone look in on the subject, gave the impression that I thought he carried a plague. It wasn't very difficult considering that in the past he was never one to seek me out but all the same, I did my best to make sure that I was always well hidden. That being said, if one were to ask why I was following Thorin around like a crazed stalker, I doubt they would understand it was because I wanted to avoid him.

So, all in all, it was a rather confusing time because for every urge that I felt to follow Thorin around, I would duck and hide, as if just seeing him would make him sprout snakes from his head and hiss at me.

It wasn't like I didn't know I wasn't being foolish, ducking behind doors and into alcoves just as I felt Thorin would turn to see if he were being followed. I knew I was being a crazed stalker. I just didn't want to openly talk with Thorin, I thought just to placate myself, even as I dived through the nearest doorway to hide from Thorin, who a moment before had made to turn around. 

My quest to follow Thorin was suddenly not very important. 

I looked around in a sort of wonder, surrounded by shelves upon shelves of books. I was in Rivendell's library and it was beautiful...

“Hello, is there something I can help you with?”

My eyes fluttered when that blissful fog rolled over my mind; I quickly found the elf responsible for it, his tall figure looking so graceful as he nodded politely to me. “This is the library?”

I replied dumbly, cursing myself for asking such an obvious question. The dark haired elf just chuckled and looked around, his eyes teasing, “I do believe it is.”

He was beautiful, I thought even as I started to sway towards him, wishing the elf would tease me forever over any and all silly questions I could ask him. The elf just smiled at me and motioned to the shelves. “You are more than welcome to anything, just to be sure to be gentle with them.”

I nodded vacuously, smiling in the same blissful state of mind that I was trapped in when an elf spoke. I walked away, limbs weak and disappeared behind one of the many book lined shelves. The library of Rivendell while not overly large were stuffed with books, ranging vastly on topics from anything concerning how to make bread to complicated histories that were long gone. Some books were written in the common tongue, others in elvish, and others still in languages I did not recognize. 

I quickly found my love of books and maps take precedent over everything else and I buried my nose into the first book I took off the shelves. 

Hours later and thoroughly invested in the tale of an elf prince who was to be saved by his lady love, I heard the voice of the elf greet someone new. I looked up from my hidden place on the floor, and nearly sputtered in disbelief when I actually saw Thorin walk past the row of books I was sitting against. Dropping my book temporarily, I stood from my spot and instantly rushed down the row so that I could see what Thorin was doing. 

If there was one thing about Thorin that I did not think fit him exactly, it was him in an elven library! 

I followed him closely, ducking behind rows as he walked along the shelves, fingers fanning out against the books. I watched him with curious eyes as he stopped every so often, pulling out a book to look over it briefly before putting it back in the row. He continued this process, each time reaching for a book and studying it before putting it back until he finally came to a book that he opened and lingered on. He stayed still as he looked to read the first page, turning to some point in the middle and closing it gently a moment later. 

Sure that he would retrace his steps back out of the library, I ducked away behind the nearest shelf where I would remain hidden. I waited for him to pass so I could return to my own book. 

I squeaked in surprise when I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, nearly pulling away before I scented Thorin's familiar musk that clung to him. I relaxed just because I knew I wasn't in danger and turned to face his intense gaze. Thorin's eyes truly were beautiful pools of bright blue, made all the more amazing by his curly ebony hair that hung down his shoulders. I felt the compulsion to reach out and touch one of the silvery strands that streaked through that dark mass.

“You have been following me.”

Thorin's voice peppered my skin seductively, making my eyes flutter in delight.

I nodded, flushing when I saw it produce a slight grin and a breath that would count as a chuckle for one like Thorin Oakenshield. “You're not very good at it.”

A teasing touch against my wrist, his words were light but whispered deeply. I leaned closer to him, wanting to close some of the distance between us, “Did you wish I was?”

I replied, wanting to know myself if he wished I were better at sneaking if only because it would have meant that I remained invisible to him. Thorin understood the meaning behind my question instantly, his eyes staring into mine intently and accessing whatever he saw pool behind my own eyes. A second later, he relaxed -his eyes softening slightly- and he reached up to lightly run his knuckles up my neck. He hovered closer, breathing in the scent of my hair, “No.”

I felt him lean in closer to me, planting a kiss on my forehead, before he took a step back and started to walk away down the row of books and out of the library, book still in hand.

I ended up going back to my room shortly after that, my own book clenched tightly to my chest.

Immediately getting inside, I startled at the sight of Fili and Kili undressing, already half naked and entirely too close to one another. I felt my heart race at the sight of tanned muscled skin, noting that with Kili this was the first time I had ever seen him so exposed. I leered, unable to take my eyes off the curve of lean muscled arms, furry chests, and strongly corded thighs. 

It was when Kili finished letting his hair down that he noticed me at the door, grinning in my direction and nudging his brother who greeted me and asked if I wanted to join them. I had no idea what they were even asking of me but I was already in agreement if it meant taking off some more of their clothes. I was already going for the buttons on my vest when Fili disappeared off into the bathing chamber, prompting Kili to look at me and explain, “Just got back from sparring, sweaty business that is.”

He wriggled his eyebrows at me, making me laugh at his childlike expression before I motioned that I would follow in after them. By the time I got undressed and was ready to join the brothers in the bath, they were already situated on either edges of the long tub, the size easily holding them both with more than enough room for a third. Fili was leaning his head back, his hair still dry, his eyes closed and looking the very picture of relaxed.

As for Kili, his hair was already soaked around his cheeks, strands hanging in his face without a care. As I approached the tub, I noticed that while the air around him still gave off the same joviality it did moments ago, his expression was blank. He was just resting, his brown eyes watching Fili as his brother relaxed. He smiled up at me when he saw me approach, offering me the spot between his legs if I should wish for it. 

Never having been that close to him physically besides the time in the forest, I gladly accepted it, slipping underneath the water and leaning up against his strong chest. As I closed my eyes to allow myself the chance to fully enjoy the feel of his skin against my back, I felt Kili shift behind me and a callused finger trace along the skin near my collarbone. The gesture reminded me of Thorin and I leaned back into it gratefully.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the darkened strands of his wet hair hovering close, his own head leaned against mine. I brought my hand up to finger the tendrils and delighted when it pulled a soft smile from Kili's lips. “Can I ask you something?”

“Hm?”

He hummed out, equally as quiet as when I first asked, as if we both did not want to disturb Fili, though we both knew he could hear us just fine. I found myself staring at the stubble on his cheeks, touching it a second later. His eyes softened even more, “Is it normal for dwarves ...to... you know? Be with their relatives?”

I wondered if I was specific enough, hoping I would not have to elaborate on it more. Kili's fingers stilled for a moment on my skin before they resumed their leisure pace. “No, but there has been no one else.”

I nodded slowly to his confession, stunned by how easily he could admit such a thing and do it so simply, with such confidence that he was without a hint of nervousness. I glanced at Fili, wondering what it was like to be the holder of such a simple declaration of love. I found myself wondering as well where I fit into such a confession, if I were to indeed take Kili's words to heart. 

If there had been no one else, why lie with me?

Kili's brown eyes were looking at me as I thought this over; his fingers stopped and he kissed my temple before nudging me away, “Go over and wash his hair for him. He enjoys such things.”

Kili's voice soothingly stroked me, reassuring me that all was well. I glanced back at him just to check his expression again, a content smile still on his face, before I took the advice and saw Fili move. Perfectly content to listen to Kili and I talk before, he leaned up and grinned at me, his eyes soft and his lips grinning sweetly. I watched him as he scooted forward, making room for me behind him.

“It'll be easier for you if you sit up there.”

I nodded silently to the suggestion, well aware of our height differences and how it affected us while sitting down. While I was nervous at the feeling of being so exposed outside of the tub, I did my best to hide it as I carefully slid around him. Once I was sitting back on the edge of the marble tub, the cool stone chilling me and making me shiver, I realized that I wasn't any less nervous even hidden behind Fili. I saw how my hands shook as I gingerly palmed the bottle of scented soaps, turning back to see how Kili eyed us intensely and how at peace Fili was below me.

Briefly I fretted as I got the soaps ready in my hand, watching as Fili leaned his head back to give me full access to his thick mane of hair. As soon as I got my fingers in his thick blonde tresses, he released a heavy sigh, pushing back into the hands that massaged his temples. As I worked my fingers through the thick hair, I felt Fili leaning back between my legs, his body melting underneath skillful fingers as he let his head fall completely fall into my keeping. His eyes were closed, every so often releasing a groan that just seemed to tell me stories of how much he enjoyed what I was doing to him. 

I saw Kili move from the other side of the tub, crawling closer so that he could silently ask for a bottle of the soaps. I paused in my ministrations to hand him the bottle, the pause making Fili open his eyes and look up. Instantly he was leaning back to look at his brother who smirked at him. “You are _not_ going to wash my mustache with that.”

“Oh, but I _am_.”

Despite a playful splashing fight that resulted in both the younger dwarves eventually wrestling in the water in a flurry of soap and water, Fili was made to heel to us and he had to deal with Kili and I scrubbing his hair deeply, even as he scrunched his face against the smell of the flowers. Once he was thoroughly cleaned enough for any King of the Bedroom Kingdom, Kili was back to resting on the other side of tub, scrubbing his own fingers hastily through his dark hair.

I was pulled from my observation of Kili by Fili's body moving away from the edge of the tub, turning in place and looking up at me. I smiled at him briefly when I saw how his blue eyes glinted up at me, a grin on his cheeks that almost made me shiver when combined with the lust I saw in his eyes.

I felt my cheeks flush when I realized that while my previous position was ideal for washing hair, I was now utterly exposed before Fili. In response to my flush, he leaned forward casually and palmed my thighs, heavy so that I would know that he would not let me close them, “For washing my hair...”

He whispered, his voice making me arch with a gasp when it gripped flesh, and then hiss when his tongue lapped slowly at the growing heat of my sex. Vaguely I realized that Kili was looking up in surprise at the two of us, not having realized what we were doing until my moan echoed in the stone chamber. 

“Is dwarven gratitude always like this?”

I clenched out between my teeth as Fili's tongue dipped deeper, wondering if indeed dwarven gratitude was always dealt out in such a way? In the last few days, Thorin and the brothers both used it as a means of expression and I was left curious as to whether or not I would need to curb how I acted around the other dwarves. I wasn't about to warrant any gratitude from the others in the company...

“Heh, hardly! A head butt is the most one can expect.”

Fili joked lightly, his chuckles making me shudder in delight from both the sensation on my skin and the way it puffed air on sensitive flesh. Again, as Fili went back to work lapping at my juices hungrily, groaning in delight when a new wave of pleasure made me shudder against his mouth, I was reminded of Thorin. If gratitude wasn't done in such a way what did it mean? I wanted to ask. 

I moaned loudly, hunching over and gripping my fingers into blonde hair, my eyes watching Fili as he sucked on my clit. He moaned not just from the pleasure of my reaction but from something behind him, something that Kili was responsible for. I watched as Kili leaned over him, fingers skillful as they worked open his brother, pushing in deeply and earning a groan from the elder.

It was too sexy.

I never thought I would be one for such a taboo thing but with Fili groaning into my heat, pushing himself closer to delve his tongue inside me, I found I could not be bothered to care. The sight of Fili's obvious enjoyment over Kili working him open and licking me was enough to spur on a quick orgasm, shuddering against his mouth even as I tugged on blonde locks.

Even as I had my eyes closed to help breathe through my climax, I heard Fili's grunting and groaning over Kili's fingers. His callused fingers gripped at my thigh roughly, stroking the skin there with the pad of his thumb before he was cursing and shuddering against Kili's hand more fiercely than before. Kili was stroking himself, his cock red and heavy in his tight fist, his fingers pumping inside Fili until the elder shuddered and cursed. I felt the grip on my thigh tighten.

Whatever the wrongness implied in the brothers bedding with one another, it couldn't begin to compare to how beautiful the two looked when they each found their release, shuddering into a fist or against fingers and panting harshly either against skin or in the air. The two were beautiful.

We drained the water and filled the tub again. 

Now thoroughly drained and ready just to relax, the three of us went back into the tub, Kili still on the one side but now a playful Fili leaning down the tub so that he could rest against my chest. How content he looked just lounging against the soft skin of my arm, his mustache and beard tickling me even as he pressed kisses to the skin beneath.

Such was the King of the Bed Kingdom...

All three of us were sated, content and happy to just enjoy the moment together.

I found my thoughts traveling back to the library, the ease I felt in Thorin's presence and the hidden depth in his eyes as he leaned forward to kiss my forehead. 

“I never figured him for a reader.”

I murmured aloud, Fili's hair twisted in my fingers, wondering why I even recalled the moment Thorin left the library with the book he plucked from the shelves still in hand.

“Uncle loves to read.”

What?

I opened my eyes at the word, at the familial title, and found myself leaning my head back up to look at Fili, whose eyes were still closed in peace. 

_What?_

Kili opened his eyes, noticing that I hadn't replied back and saw the look on my face.

“We _did_ mention that, right?”


	17. A Treasure Worth Stealing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and Fili start to build something between them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter comes a brand new summary on the main page. I felt that the summary just wasn't a correct representation of this story anymore so it was changed. 
> 
> The notes have also been changed to reflect a much needed thanks. 
> 
> Honestly, to all of you who have been commenting and reading, you really have no idea how much all of this means to me.   
> So, I dedicate this chapter to you.

“I just don't want to talk to them! Is that so hard to understand?” 

I snapped loudly, biting my fork none too gently and chewing with purpose, every crunch of food a mental curse.

“Nope, laddie. Just eat.”

I was sitting next to Dwalin, angrily shoveling food around my plate, stabbing greens onto cutlery while my other hand was clenched on the table. Every so often as I remembered the brothers just _casually_ explaining to me the nature of their relationship to Thorin, I would pound the hard surface. All around me, dwarves were either silent or doing their best to look interested in their own plates. Down the table the two most incredibly awful, selfish bastards sat, their faces red and looking like they just wanted to disappear for a while.

They looked defeated, slowly eating their own food and staring miserably at me from down the length of the table.

I couldn't stand their faces, those handsome faces who thought they were just so adorable and cheeky and could get away with anything! 

“I mean, to not even say anything! Who does that! _Who_ does that?!”

I shoved the fork into my mouth, chewing again with angry purpose. I waited for the usual reply to my ranting but when Dwalin's voice didn't tickle against my cheek, I paused. Still waiting for my muttered response, I practically glared daggers at the far larger dwarf next to me, watching how he ignored me for a moment before feeling my gaze on him. If he hadn't already been leaning close to his plate, he was practically nosing it now, his hand doing its best to hide his face.

If I had bothered to care for a moment, I would have felt sorry for the tough looking dwarf.

“No idea, laddie. Eat.”

I went back to shoveling food around my plate, stabbing at another few bites. “Honestly! To think it slipped their minds!”

“It _did_ slip our-”  
“Silence, you two.”

Thorin hissed out, his eyes briefly glancing at me even as he tried to avoid my gaze altogether, frowning into a roll of bread and glaring at his two _nephews_ for causing such a disastrous dinner. I nodded in agreement at his command, not even wanting to look at the brothers anymore. I was at least pleased to know that Thorin understood the ways of women enough to know that when upset, it was best just to nod, agree with whatever they said, and try to avoid them. 

The brothers themselves were at a loss as to how to do such things, sputtering and motioning with their hands that they were lost and confused. Completely without options. It was probably new to them to have such a peaceful bath turn into a war zone.

“ _'We mentioned that right?'_?” I mimed in the best mimic of Kili's voice I could manage before glaring daggers at the brothers all the while stabbing more food onto my fork. Fili at least had the balls to look me in the eye, his blue eyes pleading into mine for forgiveness, understanding, to be smacked and let the whole matter rest.

“Please-!” Before Fili could even hope to appease his new vengeful Goddess, Thorin slammed his fist down onto the table, “Silence, boy!”

With a smile, I knew I would have to ask Thorin about how he learned so well the ways of angry women. It was intriguing to see him frustrated and not be able to do anything about it, to just let it run its course, and hope to come out unscathed in the cross fire. 

I glared at Dwalin, for whom I was still waiting to answer my outburst, the only one at the table who was really allowed to speak to me without any possible repercussions. By no means was I going to allow him to understand or try to placate me in any way, shape, or form but he was allowed to agree with me.

He noticed my attention back to him and his eyes were at a loss as they darted around the room for any type of support and finding none. I'm sure he was cursing mentally the ways of cowardly traitors who weren't dwarf enough to stand up to an angry hobbit.

“Whatever you say, laddie. Eat.”

I went back to eating, at least temporarily happy that I could eat such great food and bring the entire company of Thorin Oakenshield to its knees...

 

“Absolutely not!”

When it came time for an early bed, all of the dwarves took the option gladly; they practically ran to their rooms in the attempt to avoid the possibility of being in the crossfire of the great battle that was brewing. They were waiting for me to explode, I was sure. Just to lose it and start throwing things and smack the two brothers around. I was curious over how their dwarven women exacted their fury, wondering if it were as fearsome? By the easy way their dwarven men cowered in the face of an angry female, I took a gander that their females were something to be feared... especially if Thorin and Dwalin were the first to cave against such fury. 

Just content to have been ignored for the rest of the evening, I was reminded of the fact that the brothers and I were sharing a room by the slow poke of their heads through the doorway. At the sight of them trying to come back into the room, I nearly spat fire such was how quickly I snapped at them.

The pillow was soft in my hand even as I threw it, deadly accurate for a hobbit well used to throwing objects around for practice. The brothers jumped at the soft thump against the door, still trying to test the waters to see if they could be forgiven.   
“Come on, Bilbo...”

“No! Get out!” 

I bounded off the bed towards the door, watching as both brothers literally squeaked in fear and ducked their heads out of the way. Just in time too for I slammed the door on their faces and smacked the hard wood for emphasis. “Go sleep with the elves for all I care! You're not coming back in here!”

Immediately they were groaning, a thud on the other side of the door that sounded like someone was pressed up against the wood. 

“Miss Hobbit, we didn't mean it!”  
“Yes, forgive us! We want to cuddle!”  
“Just cuddle, yes! We want to pamper you!”

Their voices were timid but sincere, smoothing over the mounds of my butt possessively but only enough to show that they wanted my forgiveness. 

“Go away!”

Another thud, another sound that scratched all the way down my leg even as it slid down the door. Were they physically leaning up against the door, begging for forgiveness? 

In a way I was tempted to just forgive the brothers. They were great cuddle companions and the comfort they provided at night while sleeping next to them was something not to be easily ignored. At the same time I did not want to be taken for a fool; no doubt this was not the first time the brothers infuriated a woman and I certainly wouldn't let them think that being cute and cuddly would get them out of trouble!

I opened the door, grinning with an evil glee as I saw them both tumble onto the floor in an ungraceful pile of limbs and hair. I leaned down to look at them more closely, both of them staring up at me as if I were the great Evil himself come to personally visit them. 

Their puppy dog eyes were pleading up at me, watery at the edges as if they would cry at any moment...

“GO AWAY!!”

I barely let the brothers scramble out of the way before I slammed the door on them again...

 

I slept peacefully, burrowed deeply within a pile of blankets and pillows that normally would have been hogged by the brothers until I was only left with whatever was between the two. I was content, dreaming of pie and elven beauties when I twitched awake at the sound of a door slowly opening. 

Candle light from the corridor pooled in, my eyes needing to turn away from it even as it disappeared behind the click of a door. I was just so tired, so willing to go back to sleep that I found myself already slipping away back into the clutch of dreams. Peace in my mind, an eye fluttering open again when I felt the blankets lifted up momentarily and a dip of weight press onto mattress.

I tried to go back to sleep, knowing that this was Rivendell and that I was safe here. 

Unconsciously I leaned into the roughened palm as it smoothed over my hip and pulled me back into the waiting body of someone extremely warm. It felt nice. So nice and peaceful and warm against that body; I swooned against the comforting presence, feeling it respond with the press of a thumb against my stomach. A kiss pressed to my shoulder, the feel of a beard and mustache. 

I was awake.   
I knew who was in my bed. 

“You and your brother can bugger off.”

Though I wanted to keep my resolve firm on the matter, I was not upset like I was earlier and my voice lacked all conviction. From behind me, I heard Fili chuckle before pressing another kiss to the back of my shoulder, “Kili is with Thorin; it's just me here.” He paused just to spoon his entire body against mine, his ankle trapping my legs. He tilted his nose up to sniff my neck, “You smell good.”

I scoffed at his compliment, the grab of his voice on my butt speaking of his good mood. I was content to just lie there beside Fili. 

My heart was already starting to quicken with the knowledge that this was the first time that Fili and I were alone without his brother. We were alone together in a bed, in what would pass easily as a romantic setting if the fact that we weren't on an adventure didn't come into play. Could an adventure be seen as a romantic getaway?

If the adventure so far was anything to go by, I doubted that, thinking of mud clinging to my clothes and troll snot.

I looked back at Fili, turning only sightly so that I could see the darkened shape of his face in what limited light we had. He was smirking. I felt my eyes roll before I could even help it, my hand coming up to push his face away none too gently but completely without any strength before it either. 

“I smell like you two animals.”

I closed my eyes again, a soft grin on my lips. I was ready to try and slip back off into sleep but I felt Fili's hand release my hip. I pressed back into his eager body, feeling as his roughened palm followed the line of my thigh and slipped underneath the hem of my sleeping shift.

“Must be why I like it then.”

His voice whispered with need, possessively kneading my backside even as his hand trailed higher. His body was fully committed to this, already hard against the curve of my rear and absently rocking against me. Kisses from sensual lips were peppered along my shoulder, reaching up to my neck to graze teeth at the pulse point. I shuddered at the feel of his fingers finding me wanting already, dipping into the folds without preamble and feeling how wet I was already.

I felt embarrassed by how quickly I became wet for him, his body and groans enough for me to react so wholly to him. This was different, I knew, because I was alone with Fili whose sole attention was on me. I felt flush with the realization that I was so turned on by Fili slipping into my bed, almost as if it were wrong of him to do so without Kili. The fantasy brought a new wave of pleasure to my body, trembling in delight when he grinned into the shell of my ear.

“You like that?”

His voice grabbed the meaty flesh of my lower cheeks, his physical fingers stroking at me expertly as he groaned into the friction his hardness ground into. I nodded to his question, pushing back against him, rolling my hips against the hard bulge in his trousers and moaning when he hissed in need. I shuddered when I felt the curl of his finger against me, slipping inside easily, eager to draw out the pleasure I felt by teasing me. I wanted more already.

I gasped in pleasure when he added a second finger, his breath coming short against my ear. “You're always so tight, Miss Hobbit.”

I groaned and squirmed against him, trying desperately to will my orgasm down even though his skilled fingers were quickly forcing it from my body. This was Fili's true passion. For all the mention of the love of crafts that I heard dwarves loved above all else, the pleasuring of a woman was Fili's one true love. His fingers stroked along my walls so expertly, thumb reaching to circle my clit every so often just when I would start to get used to the sensations. My fingers reached down to squeeze his wrist, wrapping down to cover his hand with my own. 

Despite the way my fingers tried to pull him off, to give me a lull from the overwhelming pleasure, Fili just ignored it, pumping more firmly, circling more assuredly. 

“Just feel it, Bilbo.”

A kiss on my ear, his voice wrecked and gripping me fiercely. I tried to move away from him but whenever I moved one way, his body moved with mine and his fingers went deeper into me. “Fili!!” I gasped, not even knowing if I wanted him to stop anymore or if I was pleading for him to understand that I wanted to fight him. He did not need to be told to keep going, to not even slow his pace.

“That's it, arch into me.”

I rocked into his fingers, groaning and gripping his hand that worked between my legs. Fili was forceful, voice leaden with hot lust that spurred me on and made me grip all the harder onto his knuckles, helpless as my orgasm inched ever closer.

Fili pulled back from me, placating me with a fierce kiss before he undid the laces of his trousers and slipped out of the fabric, casually tossing it to the side. My eyes fully adjusted to the dark, I could see the outline of his body and the hard length of his hot cock, slightly smaller in size than his brother's but no less wanting.

I turned onto my back, wanting to reach out and touch, and parted my legs for Fili to situate himself between. Once again our lips locked, a play of tongues that caressed and desired to taste. His hands in my hair, feeling my cheeks that were smooth unlike their own dwarven women. 

I smirked when Fili gasped, breaking our kiss at the unexpected feel of my hand around his cock, his hips bucking forward of their own accord. I felt his body press into me again, grinding himself into the feel of my smooth hand before catching my lips in a rough kiss. We were both desperate for it, our moans being eaten by the other. My hand found his blonde mane of hair and pulled him forward.

“So you _do_ like it rough?” 

He grunted, following my body as I pulled him down to kiss me deeper. His hand traced the line of my stomach until it reached his cock, adjusting himself so that he could rub himself in the wetness that was gathered between my legs.

“Can I fuck you?”

His hips rocked against the slickness of my desire, making me squirm and nearly bucking him off before he leaned down to hold me fast. His strong grip pressing my wrist into the sheets, covering his body over mine and gasping into my neck. I realized I hadn't answered even though my body was answering him enough already. 

His lips against my cheek, breath against skin.

“Can I make love to you?”

I groaned when I heard the question, both of us knowing even in our lust hazed minds that Fili had asked me two different questions, both of which meanings varied so greatly. He kissed me again, his body arching up so that his hard cock pressed against my entrance.

I barely nodded into his lips but it was enough for him to feel. 

He slid inside me, the heat from how hard his cock was making me feel like he was burning me from the inside out. He pushed until his hips were flush with my thighs, my heat engulfing him. I heard him release a hiss of breath, swearing even as the grip on my wrist increased, starting to hurt even though it felt so good.

I wanted to enjoy the feeling of him inside me but he would have none of that; as soon as he caught his breath, he was releasing my wrist and leaning up and over me to grip his fingers at the back of the headboard, the difference in angle making him push deeper than before. I gasped at how full I felt, my fingers gripping the hair at the back of his neck so tightly I'm sure that it hurt.

He pulled back from me, his cock sliding out easily with how much wetness was dripping from my sex and thrust back inside, a sharp slap of skin that reduced me to incoherent moans and pleas. Each slap of skin, a connection of hips on thigh, I felt my body cave to him, arch into every whim he wanted of me. I felt beautiful, I felt wanted. I felt desired as I felt his other hand fondling a breast. Each time he thrust deeply, he grunted, leaning down at one point to bite down into my shoulder. I shuddered at the small flair of pain, hearing Fili groan into my shoulder, “Mahal, save me-!”

He gasped when he pleaded, felt how my inner walls clenched around him, realizing how it affected me when his normally so teasing and warm voice sounded so wracked with need. It was what pushed me over the edge, the orgasm so long denied now being ripped and forced from me as if it were never mine to give in the first place. Fili didn't quite expect it to be so violent, I'm sure, but mid-thrust he felt the walls around his cock constrict tightly -almost painfully, if the look on his face were any indication – and he had to roughly pull out from me, his own release painting my stomach with spurts of white.

In the darkness and quiet of the room, we both tried desperately to catch our breath.

I caught mine before him and when I looked over at him, he looked utterly debauched. So utterly ruined that I found myself desperate to comfort him. I gave in to need. I pressed a kiss everywhere I wanted, feeling how sweaty his forehead was and how much he still trembled even as he tried to find his breath. A press of lips on the dimple of his cheek, in the hair of his beard.

“So, can I stay?”

His voice so sheepish made me laugh and I pushed him off me, smiling even as he groaned and remained boneless into the pillows. Feeling the impending grossness on my stomach, I rolled over in the bed onto my knees, reaching over to the side table so that I could pull out a washing cloth from the drawer. I cleaned myself thoroughly with the aid of the basin of fresh water and threw the cloth over to Fili so that he could do the same for himself.

When we both laid back down, we were sated, our needs met for the moment. I watched as Fili's eyes shut almost immediately and I knew he would be asleep within minutes. Just because I could, I snuggled up close to his front again, feeling his arm reach up to wrap around my waist and hug me close. 

He looked happy. He looked thoughtful.

I wondered if he wanted to go back to Kili... 

How easily and quickly a doubt could plague one's mind even after enjoying such a blissful thing as coupling with someone you were coming to care about. Fili looked content enough but in my own mind, I was starting to come back into the world and think of the arrangement we had but never spoke of. 

My fingers smoothed into the hairs of his beard, enjoying the texture until he opened his eyes. Instantly he noticed that something was worrying me and he turned his head so that he could kiss my hand. “What's wrong?”

“What about Kili?”

Fili's eyes sharpened with an emotion I could not understand, his smile slowly losing the warmth it once had. A second later, he was kissing my forehead, “He was asleep.”

Simple and nothing more. His voice curled along my skin the same as it always had. It was the truth.

Silence aside from our breathing. 

“Would he mind if we slipped in?”

Just as Fili's eyes started to close again so that he might get some sleep, his eyes snapped open to look at me. He knew I was not asking if Kili were the one to mind. He knew I was not asking if we could go and get Kili so that we could all sleep over here. He knew that I was asking if whether or not Thorin would mind my presence there so that we could all sleep together.

Not just the brothers and I.   
All of us.

Those blue eyes were so expressive, so unlike his Uncle's, and how I felt horrible for being the one to make them race back and forth across my face, searching for some sort of answer. He did not know what to make of my question, that much was obvious but it already seemed like he understood my desire to get close to Thorin. Ever since the first night in Bag End, Thorin had intrigued me. I wanted to learn more about the leader of our company...

Fili saw that, accepted such a thing when I was previously with Thorin, and his eyes warmly reflected that fact. The very simple desire to want to get close to Thorin as well as stay in the comfort of the brothers. He smiled at me. 

“...No, he wouldn't. Just,” He turned on his back away from me and scratched a quick hand through his beard, “Sleep next to me.”

I wasn't sure if it was a warning or his own new possessiveness; even his voice made it impossible to understand at the moment given how it trembled against my skin. He sat up from the bed, stretching his arms until we both heard a pop and got up, indicating for me to join him. Eagerly I did so, feeling almost like a true burglar about to steal into a secret treasure vault. In a way, we were. There was something between the brothers and their Uncle that was hard to determine and even harder to understand. All of them had a secret and all of them were guarded in their own way. 

What Fili and I snuck away to across the hallway was something that promised to be an adventure on its own.

At the doorway, he stopped and turned to face me, expression completely serious.

“He snores.”

He warned before bursting out in a smirk, his voice a pinch on my rear, and slowly turned the knob to not alert the battle honed senses of the either inside. The room was dark, still and quiet aside from the soft snores of the elder dwarf. With Fili's hand in my own, he pulled me forward into the room, slowly closing the door again, giving me the sense all over again that we both were burglars. We crept up as silently as we could, slow and steady.

As we approached the bed, I saw two lumps underneath the blankets, though because my eyes were not used to the darkness anymore I could not tell who was who. 

Slowly we crept.

The snoring had stopped.

Fili paused, tensed. 

“It's just us.”

The wisp of sensation against my backside trembled with uncertainty. 

A moment later passed before Thorin was grunting, “Come along, then.”

His voice rough from sleep trembled down my neck before Fili pulled me along after him. Now without caring if we were to wake the occupants inside, Fili's footsteps echoed against the walls while my own were still silent. A true burglar, indeed.

When we were at the side of the bed, Fili lifted up the covers, revealing the sleeping form of Kili on the right side of the bed facing away from Thorin. I watched as the elder of the two pushed his brother's shoulder, urging him to scoot over but unfortunately for him only ended up with him turning over. With a sigh of put upon annoyance, Fili fumbled over the limbs of his brother until he finally got comfortable and held up a hand for me. 

Though I was a hobbit known for being nimble, having to crawl over both of the brothers reduced me down to fumbles as well until I practically fell onto the bed in relief. Afterwards, all of us adjusted to get comfortable, a sound of heavy blankets that breathed sensation against my fingers. 

In the darkness I felt Kili's arm resting across the bare hip of his brother, fingers pulling every so often on my shift. Fili's hand lightly held onto my own after I finished rolling onto my side. Exhausted from our previous activities, my eyes felt heavy and I relaxed instantly into the encumbering warmth of the two dwarves that surrounded me. Already I was beginning to sweat with how the two of them were like furnaces. 

I burrowed further into the pillow, jumping only slightly when I felt a roughened hand come up to rest against my waist hesitantly. I sighed into soft linen, melting into the hold until Thorin understood that his touch was wanted. The heat of his body pressed against me, a meeting of skin where one could find it. My toes brushing up against a knee.

I fell asleep, a burglar enjoying the spoils of the treasure vault.


	18. Breakfast in Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and Thorin have a moment of peace....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is shorter because I was having a mini writer's block. :/

I woke with the softness of fur tickling my cheeks.

My eyes opened to the bright sunlight streaming in through the curtained archways that led to the balconies the elves were so fond of. The shear fabric of the cream colored silks kept the light at bay, allowing just enough so as to not blind and bathing the room in a softened, warm glow. My eyes watched the curtains, entranced by how they swayed in the cool air of spring. When the curtains danced with a more forceful blow of wind, a tickle of its strength played in the curls of my hair.

I looked to where I saw that where Fili and Kili slept the night, finding it empty with the only evidence that they were even there at all being a bundle of disturbed linen. Unmade and left without even trying to straighten in the slightest, I reached out to feel the cool spot where Fili last lie.

Behind me was warm.

The fur that was tickling my cheeks belonged to the jacket that Thorin usually wore, the sable pelt trim resting so casually across my body over the blanket that I was at first taken aback by how it had even got there. Lazily I stretched underneath the pile of blankets, groaning at the tension of muscles,and turned around to face the other side of the bed. I expected to find Thorin behind me sleeping as well but he was up and looking as if he had been so for quite some time.

He was reading the same book that I saw him take from the library, sitting up against the back of the headboard and dressed in his simple navy blue tunic. His hair looked only a little wild, tamed down most likely with only fingers and not a brush. He looked comfortable, his face relaxed as his eyes read over the words of the page,completely at ease in a way I had never seen before. 

“Good morning, burglar.”

Thorin's voice whispered down my back, the touch of it assured and comforting. His eyes glanced down at me to make sure that I felt his attention before he returned to his book. He didn't tell me to leave, nor where the brothers had gone off to. He just went back to reading as if I had ever right to be in his bed right next to him.

We both were quiet, our breathing the only sound besides the rustle of leaves. The breeze filtered through the curtains.

I closed my eyes because of how comfortable it felt not just from the feel of the bed below me or the blankets above but also because I was not being rushed anywhere. I was not being woken quicker than I wanted to be, allowed to lounge as I pleased. It was a much different experience than when I was with Fili and Kili, immediately almost being pounced on when the first sign of consciousness made itself known.

This was comforting; this was relaxing.

“Did you sleep well?”

I asked, moving aside some of the blankets so that I could lean up and rest my head into the palm of my hand. Thorin did not immediately answer nor did I expect him to; just as he did not feel the need to interrupt my peaceful awakening, Thorin did not necessarily see the need to rush to answer my question. His blue eyes slowly peeled away from the book to linger on my face, letting me know that he heard and was going to answer but in a moment. His eyes went back to the page he was reading. 

In the past I remembered the times when my Mum did not immediately answer my questions and how frustrated it made me, to feel like one was not a high enough priority. I expected that same rush of emotion to well up in my chest but was surprised when nothing came. I just waited for Thorin to answer as if I had asked him a question that he would need to give great thought to. 

As I waited for him to finish his page, I watched Thorin as he read, mouthing some of the words under his breath, before going silent again. His eyes poured over the literature with an interest that begged not that he thought me unimportant but of knowing that his attention would be drawn if he didn't finish the page.

I felt flattered and more than a little like preening over the fact that he would want to devote himself entirely to me. I waited with a peace in my mind and a laziness in my limbs until he finally finished the page and looked at me. 

“Yes, I did, actually. Yourself?”

I smiled at the trail of sensation along my thigh, laying down onto the pillows once more when his physical hand moved to stroke along a bare shoulder. His touch was constant, the pad of his thumb tracing patterns against the soft skin. I sighed into the touch, closing my eyes and relishing the feel of the lovely breeze in my hair, the way that the smell of metal still clung to the very core of the dwarves. 

“Where are Fili and Kili?”

I asked purely out of an innocent curiousity, hoping by the casual manner of my tone that he would understand that I had asked not because I wanted to imply that I wanted to leave his side as soon as possible. Thorin's eyes lingered on me and softened at the concern that I was showing for his nephews. He seemed happy that I wanted to inquire about them and not just accept the fact that they were gone. 

“Gone to get breakfast.”

I groaned into the pillow at the very thought of how amazing breakfast would taste right then, already feeling how my mouth watered at just the mere thought of breads and greens. Immediately following the thought, I was torn between wanting to get up for the possibility of food and just staying where I was. I was comfortable enough being next to him but in a way, it felt much like at any moment the sense of this being normal could be broken. I wondered would it be as if the person inside would disappear as soon as I tried to come back in? 

I didn't want to risk it.

Thorin himself at any point in the morning could have gone out of the room, or even just decide to join the brothers for breakfast. He could have done so and yet he was here with me now. He could also have done his reading at the desk nearby or out on the balcony; however, he was beside me and content about that fact. This was a Thorin who was happy to accommodate my want to be a part of his world.

I found that I wanted to stay there with the Thorin that allowed me such a thing. 

I ended up crawling up from out under the covers, watching as Thorin followed my movements with a steady eye until I had my back against the cool surface of the headboard, my side flush with his. Those same eyes inquired with a curiosity, a slight rise of his eyebrow before I reached down to bring up the pile of blankets and his coat to cuddle into. It was well enough with clothes on but with only a thinner night shift, I was starting to get cold. 

Thorin chuckled at the very picture of what I looked like, a lazy, soft hobbit but even though his eyes were gentle enough, I was sure that that fact still bothered him. We were still on an adventure after all, no matter how long we had to wait for the moon to properly come into its proper phase. After Thorin got the information necessary to unlock the secrets of the map to Erebor, we would need to head out again, exposed to the danger of the wilds. 

How would all of this translate out there? 

As much as I assumed that Thorin's quiet nature meant that he was a thoughtful, brooding type, I was sure that Thorin thought about that constantly. 

How would caring for a soft, little hobbit in Rivendell where she would always be safe translate to caring for the same soft, little hobbit out in the wild?

Was he choosing just to not think of that right now, content to just let it sit underneath a pile of blankets? 

“What are you reading?”

I certainly was willing to let it sit if it meant I did not have to leave his side.

Pressing even closer to his side, earning another rumble of a chuckle from his chest, I maneuvered his arm so that I could hold onto it. Trapped underneath a pile of blankets, he looked at me with a soft smile on his bearded face and adjusted so that he could get comfortable in the new position. With his large hand gently resting on the curve of my inner thigh, his thumb every so often smoothing over skin, Thorin began to tell me the story so far of the book he was reading.

As I listened to him tell me the basic introduction of the characters, I remembered the courtyard where I met the silver haired elf and closed my eyes. 

Thorin's voice poured over me in waves, smoothing down my legs and stroking along the edges of my ears. He spoke of brothers who were at war and how the elder was banished to a life without the ones he cared for in a land not his own. The sadness that I picked up from Thorin's tone came across my cheeks like a cupping of palms and I leaned into his shoulder to give what support I could. The brothers fought in the tale, deception and need for vengeance between the two. Rage and hurt and wishing for redemption, for another path taken.

As I listened to Thorin's voice tell me the finer points of the story, I came to understand as his voice trailed along the various parts of my body that it was wrong of me to before even think of his voice as sexual. Yes, it had started out in nature like that but only because I hadn't understood it. Listening to his voice without the added distraction of my eyes, I found that his voice was like a touch of a lover who was simply desperate to touch everything they could get their hands on.

It was not automatically given to grabbing or claiming but one that would slide down their lover's back so that it could see how one was affected by such a gesture. Thorin's voice was like, trailing like hands all along my skin, desperate to devour me as readily as he would his book. 

How I adored such a voice that made one feel so wanted.

A knock on the door interrupted Thorin's explanation, making him pause before he called out that they could come in. A moment later, I smiled at the sight of the two brothers carrying back two trays stuffed with a selection of foods from the main breakfast table. 

They looked happy in their catch, closing the door with a casual kick to the door and coming over to set down the trays on the bed. A kiss pressed to my unsuspecting lips by Fili had me blushing but Thorin's fingers on my thigh assured me that he thought nothing of it. The soft assurance of his fingers on my thigh never changed even as Kili leaned in and pressed a light kiss to my cheek, smiling even as he nuzzled me with his rough stubble..

“Breakfast is served, everyone!”


	19. Building Relations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow or other Bilbo gets up getting wrapped up in the promoting of good relations between the dwarves and elves of Rivendell...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who are wondering when we're leaving Rivendell and heading back on the road, it'll be about another 3-4 chapters.

It was another lazy morning for the company of Thorin Oakenshield.

While most of the group was currently doing whatever it was they did while in the peaceful home of the elves, I was with Kili. Fili and Thorin had left us to our own devices some time after breakfast and somehow, we just ended up on some ledge overlooking one of the many courtyards Rivendell had to offer. The view was gorgeous but I wasn't looking at it with as much gusto as I was the hand that was held above me. We weren't doing anything particularly enticing or suspicious but we were just sitting and being close to one another. 

Though, technically, I was not really sitting and neither was he. We were _technically_ lying on the stone edge of a balcony, Kili with his arm keeping us from falling over into the flower bed below and I balancing on his front. His entire front. We must have made a strange sight, a hobbit just lounging on a dwarf, knees bent and desperately trying not to fall over. 

It was so amusing that I didn't want to move. I was also enjoying just talking with Kili -just the two of us- about anything since it became apparent that the younger brother was never without the elder for long. It was always strange when I ran into Kili by himself. Always a lingering thought in my mind about about why the two of us never seemed to spend much single time alone.

The time I was spending with him right now felt nice, and due to its rarity, was something that I knew to cherish. 

“Are you sure?”

A reference to the conversation we had been discussing quite adamantly for the last hour, a nagging urge that once I thought was not so easily dismissed. Over and over again without fail, my mind would return to the idea and I would blush whenever I thought of what I ultimately wanted from it.

Kili's hand was firm in my own, relaxed in my grip and just allowing me to touch and prod whenever I wanted; I followed along his fingers, tracing the edges of leather clad fingers before moving on to a leather covered palm. 

“Yea, I'm sure.”

I pressed my thumbs into the palm of his hand, fanning out fingers to stroke the knuckle, noting when Kili's breath quickened with the added sensation of skin on skin.

“Super sure?”

Kili's voice pinched playfully and I responded by curling my toes into the fabric covering his thighs; in retaliation for his playful way of asking if I indeed knew what I was asking for, I ribbed him softly with my elbow. Given our precarious position, it was not the smartest thing I could have done, Kili laughing as he tried to get away only to have to grip harder on the wall to prevent us from falling. 

“Alright, alright! I have no qualms about it.”

“No qualms about what?”

Fili's voice came from the hallway and when I looked over, I saw that he looked more happy than I had seen in the past few days. His eyes glowed when looking at us, amusement making his mouth twist up into a near laughing smile. He saw the very delicate nature of our position and was doing all he could not to comment on it or just up and push us both over.

Kili lowered his hand to rest on my stomach, adjusting a little so that the two of us were again stable on the edge of the wall. The rise and fall of my entire being controlled by the younger dwarf brother below me.

“Ah, brother!” Kili's voice playfully poked at my rear, “Do us a favor?”

Fili looked at us suspiciously for even I could admit that the tone with which Kili asked was not devoid of mischief. Fili now looked us with eyebrow raised, arms crossed, and looking as if the two of us were now something that he would always need to be wary of. I wanted to scoff just because I was not nearly the trouble maker that they were. I was once a proper hobbit lass before this whole dual adventure thing happened.

“Tonight, we want you to wash everything.”

The other eyebrow joined its twin, surprise and curiosity now outweighing the need to be wary of what Kili and I might be planning. 

“ _Everything_?”

His voice might have been smooth, his tone deceptively calm but the sensation was all I needed to know his true feelings about the request; it squeezed the plump flesh of my backside in equal parts shaky and possessive, belying a rush of anticipation over the request and what it could possibly mean. His eyes that had been staring at his brother now shifted to look at me, flashing with a hint of lust when he saw how I smirked at him.

He saw it, how I did not look confused over Kili's request. Understood instantly how it were actually me who requested it in the first place.

It was something that _I_ wanted enough to ask for.

It made Fili's breath hitch even as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet, pants probably a little too tight suddenly. 

“Yep, everything. You know the drill.”

 

As restful and relaxing as my morning had been, by noon I regretted having stepped anywhere outside of the library.

It started as a distraction from my book, a murmuring band of elves who rushed past the library looking as if they stumbled onto something. I ignored it as a strange sight and nothing more. I went back to my book and began reading again only to then again be interrupted by another rush of elves, giggling about something. 

Something was happening. 

Even the library attendant looked curious over what had made the elves out in the corridor rush by so eagerly for never were elves such things as eager. From my time being in Rivendell, the elves were always poised and proper, always intent to look so unphased by the uncouth ways of the dwarves. When another group flitted by the archway, the attendant finally gave up trying to deny his urge to investigate and got up to follow the group. 

By then I was rather intrigued as well and followed after the group, quick on their heels and completely hidden by their tall looming figures. I could not understand the elves as they spoke in their own language about whatever was happening but the attendant looked surprised and even started to laugh at whatever was said. I myself was barely holding onto my control, trying in vain to not let their voices get the better of me and send me into a euphoric daze.

When our group came upon the turn of the hallway, it opened out into one of the main courtyards and the sight was truly one to behold. The courtyard was in an uproar, a crowd of elves surrounding the perimeter either laughing or pointing at what they saw happening beyond them. It was hard but I wedged my way through them, startling a few who had not seen me so far below before politely moving aside. 

The sight was mortifying -or rather if I were Thorin- I would have considered the sight mortifying. As a hobbit, I was utterly embarrassed to see just what the dwarves were doing as guests of the Lord of Rivendell.

A few of the dwarves were running amuck in the courtyard, Dwalin tossing what looked to be a vase high into the air away from the grasping hands of Lindir. His great guffaws of laughter echoed in the courtyard as Nori caught the vase and tossed it to a dark haired elf who called for him to pass it over just before Lindir reached the dwarf.

“Elladan, pass it here!”

I watched as Elladan sidestepped away from Lindir and tossed the vase over to another elf, who I was surprised to see looked exactly like him. Elladan's twin brother caught the vase, a joyous laugh erupting from his throat from the venomous look that Lindir shot him. 

“Put that down this instance, Elrohir! I promise you two that your Father will hear of this!”

The elves around the courtyard could not do anything but look at the sight and chuckle while a few others shook their heads. Elladan and Elrohir looked to be at home in causing trouble for the poor handsome Lindir, their laughter only coming louder as they brushed off his threat. 

“He won't mind! We're building relations!”

Elrohir tossed the vase up again and I saw it being caught by Kili before he tossed it over to Bofur.

While it was disturbing to see the dwarves look so at home in torturing an elf, it did actually surprise me that Thorin's dislike of elves did not really extend out to his company members. The ones who actively played in the game were smiling and laughing loudly, cheering in delight when the vase was tossed and caught by another. As a Hobbit though, I was still a little embarrassed over the fact that members of the company were actively participating in such a game... 

But as the dwarves had already shown me how they behaved as guests in my home, I could hardly be surprised.

“Ah, excuse me!”

It was a small push, a small little accident caused by the elves behind me being careless about where they were stepping and moving to get a better look. It was small but it was enough to accidentally push me forward away from the safety of spectators and into the game.

Bofur, who now saw me at the edge of the playing field turned to me and grinned, “BILBO! Catch!”

I saw him toss up the vase and I froze at the sight of it in the air. 

Everything slowed down. I started to sweat bullets. 

My eyes couldn't be parted from the sight of the vase slowly coming towards me. Slowly falling down towards me. 

I was going to die. 

My body tensed.

My palms were sweaty.

I was going to throw up.

I was too much of a proper hobbit lass for this!

I screamed and held out my hands, closing my eyes and hoping for the best, releasing the breath I had been holding when the vase plopped down into my arms and I registered the cold feel of its glazed perfection just sitting there. It was waiting for me to continue the game. 

I looked up, seeing in horror how Lindir rushed towards me for a chance to easily take back the vase from me. 

“Let me have it, Miss Baggins!”

Lindir shouted at me, forceful and urgent, and with such strength that I was unable to deny it any longer. The euphoria overtook me and I went loose, staring at Lindir as he came at me in slow motion.

His hair flowed in the wind as he ran, his cheeks pink with exertion, his eyes locked onto me. His body moved so gracefully and- Oh! Did he shake his head so that I could see how the sun glistened in such dark locks...? Was he looking at me with desire in his eyes? Was that beauty really looking at me like that?! Oh, no, don't lick your lips like that for me, you sexy beast, you... I'm not even sure if it would work out. Aren't I too young for you? Don't reach out to scoop me into your arms. Well, maybe a quick hug would be alright? Though I don't even know you that way! Would your Mother like me? No, don't bend over for me! Is your Mother even still alive? We can't embrace until we at least know each other properly.

Oh, Hobbit instincts don't fail me now!

“I CAN'T MARRY YOU!!”

I screamed and went to toss the vase, only to be scooped up into the strong arms of an elf before I could do so and hoisted up so that the ground appeared so very far away. 

“Gotcha!”

The euphoria washed over me again as I looked up at Elladan (or was it Elrohir?) and saw how beautiful his skin was and how gorgeous his hair looked that was colored like the night sky. He looked down at me and flashed those perfect teeth at me, “Toss it, Miss Periannath.”

Oh, how perfect he was. I would do anything for him.

I tossed the vase up, watching as Dwalin came and caught it with a hoot and a roar of applause by the spectators who now agreed wholeheartedly with the game. I was hoisted up again once my arms were free, moved so that I could sit on the taller elf's shoulder and hold onto Elladan's head for dear life. 

“Having fun up there?”

He asked me and my eyes rolled back from how overwhelming he was, how I couldn't resist the urge to bury my face into those ebony locks. Yavanna save me, it smelled like pine! Like everything that was glorious in this world. Elladan moved swiftly around the courtyard, laughing when he caught the vase again and waited until Lindir was very close before tossing it over to Kili.

“What in Durin's name is going on!?”

Thorin's voice cracked in the air like a slap, the sensation like he were raking his nails into my shoulder painfully. Oh, he was furious.

The crashing of the vase on the ground silenced the courtyard, breaking me from my daze and forcing all the players of the game to stop completely.

Everything was still.

Thorin was staring at the very image of what would be sacrilege in his world, his company of dwarves fraternizing with the enemy and me sitting on a shoulder of one, clutching at his hair in desperation. 

His face was red with the fury of it all, so close to bursting out in curses for all to see. It was hard to breathe. I was terrified by what he would say to us and I was embarrassed because he would most likely say it in front of everyone. To be scolded in front of a crowd of elves was not something that I was looking forward to. 

“By all that is-?” 

Everyone in the courtyard looked over to the other side, horrified now by the sight of the Lord Elrond taking in the sight of the game, its participants, and, of course, the newly broken vase. He looked angry as well, though not nearly as much as Thorin was. His eyes went straight to Lindir, who looked sheepish and bothered before they locked upon the sight of me with one of the twins. 

“Elrohir, put her down now.”

So my initial guess at the elf being Elladan was wrong... I wasn't surprised. I was surprised by how Elrond could tell though.

Carefully Elrohir adjusted me and gently helped me down so that I could stand upon the grass on my own two feet; he straightened up afterwards, stance tall but his face looking so utterly like a child about to be scolded. 

“You and your brother get to your rooms right now! I will not tolerate such behavior.”  
“Father, we were just promoting good relations!”  
“Room!”

If their tones weren't hard and pleading and I too stunned by the entire turn of events, I was sure that the daze would come over me again. Lucky enough for me though that their tone of voice left me in too much of a panic to feel any sense of euphoria wash over me.

“Lindir, clean up this mess.”

By now the spectators were starting to slowly -and with as much stealth as they could muster- try to slip away unnoticed. They succeeded only because Elrond was willing to allow them to do so and all remained silent while the dwarves went over to Thorin for what would inevitably a yelling at. Lindir started to pick up the broken pieces of the vase, looking as small and innocent as he could. 

Thorin and Elrond stared at each other from across the courtyard. The elven twins slunk off to the follow the spectators. 

I could tell from Thorin's features that he wanted to yell at the elf Lord but with the stance that the Lord carried, one of the authority given to a parent about to scold one's mischievous child (or twin boys, in this case), Thorin was wise not to pick a fight.

They stared in silence for a second longer before Thorin nodded, a concession to forget this event ever happened. A gesture returned by Elrond, an agreement that this embarrassing tale never be spoken about again.

The tension was still palpable between the company when we all ate lunch, eating in relative silence while none tried to do anything that would set off Thorin, who was still so close to the boiling point.

Unfortunately for me as well, I was sitting right next to our dear leader, hoping that I could look even smaller than I normally did. I moved some of my food about my plate, trying to look as if I were terribly interested in whatever I was doing and nibbling on bread. The others who had been more actively participating in the game had their heads down, food crammed into their mouths so that they would look busy and inconspicuous. They too were wary of Thorin. 

As a hobbit who literally was scooped up into the game and not really an active participant, I wasn't exactly frightened of Thorin yelling at me but just the thought of his fury... what a face like his must look like distorted in ugly rage...

I looked over out of the corner of my eye, fork in my mouth and trying to look nonchalant; Thorin's face was closed off, annoyed and irritated but far from the original red faced indignation from before in the courtyard.

“The vase,” Everyone held their breath when Thorin began to speak, “It looked expensive.”

Nori looked at the the older dwarf, eyes shifting from Dwalin and his own brother before nodding, “Aye, it did.”

My nose tickled before Dwalin's smooth voice lingered on my cheek, “Next time we'll get something more expensive.”

Thorin nodded, “See that you do.”

I snorted, unable to contain my laughter at the idea that Thorin was actually happy that the dwarves had accidentally broken a vase that belonged to the elves. I laughed with how far his dislike of them extended to actually be proud of what happened. 

My laughter was what cut the tension in the room, everyone instantly going at ease and laughing about the game. Even Thorin was one for the chit chat that started up, a small smile on his face that made me look content and young. Happy to be the leader of those who have caused such trouble. 

Soon enough everyone was back to normal, eating with a gusto while they each begin a conversation with one another.

Thorin's hand was surprising, a weight coming to rest on my lower back, pressed to the curve of my vest. Though I did not startle at the touch, my fork stopped before I could take a bite of my food. Fork hanging in the air, I glanced up at him, wanting to see if he was looking at me and intrigued by the sight of him not paying me any attention at all.

I stared at him out of the corner of my eye, watching as he chewed a bite of his food, looking for all intent and purposes like he was just eating and nothing more. I went back to eating when Thorin did not acknowledge me and did not pause again even when I felt his thumb stroke along my back. 

His hand inched lower.

I found myself smirking at the suggestion, adjusting so that I sat on the front of my legs, and scooted over to get a little closer. It would never be enough to make the others suspicious but enough so that Thorin could reach whatever he wanted. I continued to act as if nothing at all were amiss even when Thorin's hand trailed down further until it rested at the curve of my rounded backside, squeezing firmly. 

I continued eating as if I were content not to be bothered. As if I were not interested in the conversations that were happening all around me.

Thorin's hand slipped lower, reaching back to gather my skirt in his fingers and bundle up the fabrics, ducking his hand underneath when his task was finished. Unfortunately for him and definitely not in my favor either, we both realized that my bloomers were a barrier that he could not overcome without coming to my front to untie the damn thing. Such a thing could hardly be done though without showcasing to the company that Thorin was allowed to have a hand up my skirts. 

With a slight adjustment on my part – looking as if I were getting comfortable again – Thorin pushed his hand lower and I clenched my fist on the wood of the table. His fingertips slid forward, curving up as they pressed against fabric covered heat, kneading the flesh and fabric until I was hard pressed to continue eating.

I looked back up at him for any sign of what he was doing to me but found that his face looked undisturbed, chewing a bite of his bread with his other hand. 

I did not want to make due anymore.

There must have been something about the way I shifted but when I saw Thorin quickly eye me, I directed a quick nod over to the door. A silent question.

_'You want to take this somewhere else?'_

He smirked, followed by a barely perceived nod.


	20. A Play of Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exactly as the title says... Bilbo and Thorin decide to take their mischief back to the bedroom...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ack! I meant to have this combine with the next chapter but it ended up just kind of developing into the beast below and yeah... so, yeah....
> 
> Basically, it's just me giving into my want for more Bagginshield while also bringing out more of Thorin's soft side.
> 
> As a side note: Isn't it funny how when you write, the chapter seems longer than it really is?

I was grinning like a cat about to get a bowl of cream as I thought of what Thorin and I were about to do. I felt like a tween about to slip off behind my Dad's back to go and snog with the son of the butcher shop again. Except, of course, that this was no butcher's son; this was Thorin Oakenshield and he was something so much more removed from anything in the Shire.

First thing was first though, I had to leave the table. 

I had to get Thorin's hand out from underneath my skirts and away from the fact that he was still stimulating me with those brilliant fingers of his. I had to get up even though I wanted nothing more than to just sit there and lean into that hand as he stroked and fondled, all too eager just to stay and continue this little game.

I coughed into my fist, setting my fork down and reaching back to make a show of cracking my back and looking satisfied by the dinner I ate. Food still remained but for once, I knew that Thorin would not nag at me to finish what was still present. Just as easily as I felt Thorin's hand creep up my skirt, I felt him pull back from me in a hurried motion, quick to snap back into his lap so that he would not be caught red handed when I got up.

As I rose from the table, Fili and Kili interrupted their animated conversation to see what I do doing. Their eyes stared at my face, wondering what was up because never before had I willingly left food on my plate. I wanted to let them know what was going on, wanted them to realize that I would be with Thorin should they want to get me for anything. I glanced at Thorin and then their faces, giving them a quick thumbs up. A gleeful smirk was all it took for the brothers to figure out what was happening and to respond in kind, a smile spread upon their cheeks and Fili giving me the thumbs up to go. 

“Just a bit too stuffed for the moment. Too much lembas, I think!” 

I rubbed my belly gratefully, rocking back on the heels of my feet, before I excused myself politely and quickly made my way back to the hallway where our company was sequestered away to.

My heart was racing in my chest, mad beats felt easily through the skin and then some. I was nervous and giddy with the anticipation of the moment when Thorin would round the corner and come walking towards me. I wanted to pace just to calm myself. I wanted to run down the hallway when I saw him and leap into his arms just to feel that power easily carrying me. My palms felt clammy even as I tried to relax myself, tried desperately to not seem like a nervous pure lass just about to lie with someone for the first time. 

No, I would not run into arms that could so easily lift me and keep me close. I would stay composed, I would wait here at the door. 

It was a few minutes later, my back against the hard wood of the door, when I felt my limits tested. My eyes saw the bit of movement first, a quick flash out of the corner of my eye, before I turned and saw how casually Thorin strolled down the hallway. He looked as if the hallway were his and everything residing inside something for him to command. A King, indeed, I mused.

When our eyes met, I saw his pace slow, his casual stroll of nonchalance now a predatory guide of feet that honed in on his target. His eyes focused on mine, watching my body as I leaned back into the hard surface behind me, already starting to lose my breath from the intensity that Thorin's gaze directed at me. How I wanted him. How I desired him. It felt unreal.

I watched as he slowly stalked towards me, coming closer and closer until he was before me and trapping me with a forearm against the door. Only a hair's breadth away from me, body pressed up against mine, I felt his heat through my many layers of clothing. Already he was hard underneath his jacket and heavy trousers, already I could feel it against my hip as he gave a short aborted rut before he stopped himself. He would not have it this way.

“Am I allowed to kiss you?”

He asked, his voice trailing down like fingers down my front, forcing a shudder to run through me even pressed so close to his front. His eyes watched me as I surrendered to his voice, a quick nod given as permission.

His kiss was gorgeous. 

His lips were light against my own, descending on me slowly and with great care, sucking them into a small nip of a kiss before hovering just out of reach. His breath against my cheeks, unable to stop staring at those lips that I wanted to kiss me again already. I sighed into the second kiss, much like the first with a tentative connection of lips, my hands finding the lapels of his jacket and clutching onto the heavy fabric. 

I heard felt a rumble of vibration in his chest, a sensation of bliss running up my thighs, before he was cupping my jaw and angling me up so that he could deepen our kiss. Thorin kissed so intimately, so eager to possess but entirely too much in control just to allow himself over to senseless passion.

“Inside. Now.”

He growled out, a rush of his voice sending shivers down my arm before I fumbled for the door handle and opened it. I was frozen though, unable to move for want to not leave the warmth of his body, the shadow of his protective hold. His eyes were still on mine, reading me so thoroughly, I felt myself grow wet just from the lust and want that he shown me. 

“Inside.”

He repeated in a firm voice, a hint of a smile on his lips that made me snap out of my thoughts and nod in understanding. I took a much needed step back from his imposing figure, mesmerized by how he followed me inside the room in a languid way and then looked at me again so that I knew that I needed to take another step back. He couldn't very well just bowl me over in a rush to get by. I found myself giggling with the mental image of him trying to get by me through a doorway, only succeeding in losing that Kingly composure and little else. That moment of humor was all I needed to turn around and walk into the room that I had grown sort of accustomed to seeing, though aside from that one night I had never actually spent the night there again.

I didn't startle when I felt Thorin's hand on my lower back, kneading into the muscle there with a firm thumb, a scratchy press of lips on my shoulder that I wished desperately was bare.

“Bed.”

I did not need to be told twice. 

I eagerly crossed the room, heart heavy with excitement, and eager all the same. 

He did not say that he wanted it that way but I knew what I wanted, and so as I crossed the room, I pulled button after button free, leaving a trail of clothing behind me for him to follow. By the time I was in front of his bed, I was only in my under shift and bloomers, the air cool against exposed skin now shining with a light glisten of sweat. I was eager. I was wanting. Oh, how I wanted. 

I stood at the side of his bed, linens of the finest of quality pressing against the front of my legs. Thorin had not moved at all from where he stood at the door after having closed it; he was patiently waiting, patiently watching. I did not turn to face him, knew I did not need to in order to get my message across. I turned my head to the side and locked eyes with Thorin Oakenshield and grinned at him. A silent command of my own.

Come.

He followed the trail of clothing, each step bringing him closer to me, and each step finding an article of his own clothing joining one of my own. As I followed his approach, I felt my arousal grow heavy and needy, soaking the inside of my thighs. I yearned for that hidden body underneath all those layers.

When Thorin joined me at the side of his bed, he was just as covered and exposed as I was. His eyes radiated his need, stripping his emotional state bare before me, only to be recovered and kept at bay by the fact that he still wore his pants, boots and navy blue tunic. It would be his only protection just as mine would be. His hands touched me so firmly, palms sliding across hips and pulling me back so that he could rock his erection against my lower back. His lips found mine again, another kiss that ended with a hint of his tongue running along lips all too eager to surrender to him.

“Up.”

I did not follow the command that slipped down my sides, shaky with how arousal betrayed him by leaving him without the firm tone of a command. Instead, I watched as he started to unravel from behind my shoulder, following the line of my body when I bent over the edge of the bed; my lower body never leaving the line of his and rubbing delicious friction against the bulge in his pants. I looked back at him and saw his eyes darkened with lust, his nostrils suck in a great breath.

He could not speak.

He did not need to.

I felt his hands as they trailed up the back of my thighs, blunt nails barely felt through the cotton fabric of my bloomers, before he squeezed the soft, plump flesh of my lower cheeks. 

“Do you mean to entice me?”

My breath hitched as his voice rippled down my back like a trail of fingers, his heavy weight becoming apparent as he leaned over and covered my back with his front.

“I may have wanted that.”

I replied playfully, a teasing grin on my lips as I felt his fingers at the laces of my bloomers, deftly pulling free the knots until they pooled down at my feet in a silent huff of fabric. 

“Very well, I'll choose to indulge such behavior.”

If the aim of Thorin were to indulge, he certainly knew how to do so. His voice was a treat to me, sliding across my body possessively while his fingers delved into the wet heat of my sex. I groaned under such ministrations, content to go lax in his strong hands that brought me to the brink of climax quickly but did not so easily let me tumble without some sort of denial.

Together, we played that game, the same as the one done during our first night together in Rivendell. He indulged me only when I relented, he consumed only when I couldn't stop fighting. Thorin was patient and would not allow himself to fall.

“Up.”

A sharp hint of touch on my back, I obeyed his voice without thought, realizing only when I stared at him that he was proud of how much I unraveled underneath his fingers. I watched him come not straight to the bed but instead, go to where his pack lie near the side of the desk where he could be found from time to time writing. I was curious, wanting to know what he was searching for in his possessions, surprised to see him pull out a tiny rectangular box that was small and well cared for. Easily it fit between the length of his two hands. 

When he came back over to the bed, he said nothing at all of what he grabbed from his pack, only setting down the box on the bed nearby and crawling over to me to cover me again with his body. My thoughts about the box were stolen away by kisses, by the need to feel his lips against mine that did not feel the need for a delving tongue to properly express how deeply he wanted me.

His hands were pushing me up, pulling me backwards by gentle insistence that I instantly knew to scramble up the bed until I felt the mountain of pillows behind us. As I shifted comfortably into place, his body between my thighs, I felt the scratch of his beard against my sensitive skin, a kiss sucked into a collarbone, a hint of teeth on my neck. He grabbed me in his firm hands, strength coiled ready for action and in the next moment, I was gasping and having to readjust with not only Thorin Oakenshield in between my thighs but also underneath me. 

I was on top.

I had never been on top before. 

I tensed with the reality that I was in unfamiliar territory and made to be the lead. 

Thorin instantly saw it and firmly gripped my hips, “Relax.”

I relaxed, a flutter of breath escaping my mouth when his voice rolled over me.

“Breathe deeply.”

I sucked in a breath of air, slowly breathing it back out.

“Just let yourself feel me.”

Thorin's voice traced patterns of affection down my arms, his body underneath me hard with muscle hidden by the layers he still wore. He asked me to feel him. I wanted to feel the texture of his roughened clothes against my skin without the interruption of my own clothes.

“Can I take off my shift?”

I asked, voice shaky as he rocked his hardness into me from below, easing his hands so that I would roll into it and push down to create a friction we both could enjoy.

“Slowly.”

There was not much to the under shift that I wore underneath my clothes, being little more than one piece of chemise and a ribbon but I untied the soft thin string of fabric slowly, letting it fall against my chest. I met Thorin's eyes, glazed over with lust and darkened with need. Pupils blown wide. Again he rocked up; again, I rolled down, gasping when a hiss of his own breath came to my ears.

Slowly, I watched him as he watched me, my arms pulling the ends of my shift over my stomach, out from my shoulders, and finally away from my head. Thorin below me was breathing heavily, his lips parted so that he could suck in air. A groan captured by my mouth when I stole a kiss from him, relishing the feel of the rough cotton rubbing against my skin in such a tantalizing way.

With my body bare before him and on top of him, Thorin had all the control one would not expect from someone who was on the bottom of such a position. I had been in his place before with Fili and felt not a hint of the control that he commanded from below me. I was on top, able to move him as I pleased and yet, I was helpless above him. Thorin leaned up to capture my lips again, breathing in the scent of my neck when he pulled away. 

His hand was gripping my wrist. My hand was clutching the edge of a pillow high behind us. 

“Feel me.”

He breathed into my ear, sensation ghosting over my spine so that I was helpless against the shudder that ran through my body. He breathed deeply, rocking up into the joint of my legs. I felt the insistent press of his hard cock still confined in pants, the heat of his hips allowing to be trapped by my thighs. I gasped when the rough texture of his tunic teased my perked nipples, breasts brushing against the fabric when he breathed in too deeply and I caved into his body. The firm grip on my wrist, a roughened thumb stroking along the thin skin of my wrist. I moaned, gasping his name. 

“Tell me what you want.”

His physical fingers trailed a leisure line up my spine, making me tremble in pleasure because of how the sensation behind his voice followed his exact pace. Fingers tracing over ghost fingers. 

It was too much.  
How did he know my body so well? 

“I want to pleasure you.”

I moaned, biting into the strong line of his neck even as I ground against the bulge in his trousers. Beneath me, Thorin's eyes darkened even further, his face contorted with a desire that I had not known before. He licked his lips before I felt him release my wrist and move to sit up.

My eyes followed the movement of his arm, reaching out for the box on the bed, and reacting when I felt his hand gently pressure me to move back from him. I did so awkwardly, kneeling down between his legs. My breath caught as I devoured the sight of him undoing his trousers, pulling free a leaking cock that was ready and eager for whatever I had in mind. 

“Have you ever done such a thing before?”

His voice was calm as he asked, only wanting to know how much he would need to instruct if I were truly set on doing such a thing. I shook my head with the negative for I had never pleasured a man with my mouth before, but I was more than willing to try if Thorin were willing to teach. Thorin nodded quickly, not seeming to mind my lack of experience in this area, and unlatched the cover of the box and pulled out something that I was not familiar with at all. I stared at the object, its look like a glove made of a shear material. At the base, a simple ribbon. He caught my confused stare, looking at me quizzically, “Have you never seen such a thing before?”

I shook my head, confusion rendering me silent.

Thorin gently smiled at me before he adjusted himself for comfort and started to sheathe his cock with the device. My eyes widened in surprise, not even thinking for a moment that it could have been used in such a way.

“What is it?”

My voice was hardly even a whisper, my desire still just boiling under the surface.

“It is mainly used in the villages of men; its use being that of the prevention of pregnancy. Do the halflings not bother with such things?”

I shook my head, knowing that if such a thing came to the Shire, many of the lasses there would probably never want to ever stop using them. Some had as many as seven children because of such a device not being present.

“You are worried about such things?”

I asked him, curious to know more about him and also if he made a habit of lying with other women. 

Thorin correctly guessed my meaning behind such a question and stroked my cheek with the back of his knuckles, “The villages are not always the cleanest of places. Many times I have heard tales of the discomforts men suffered,” He leaned forward to kiss my forehead in a gesture I knew by now that all the Durin's used to comfort me rather than allow me to fret and worry, “It is wise to always be cautious.”

He softly smiled at me and directed his gaze downward, quickly tying off the ends of the device and spreading his legs further so that I could come closer. 

“Take it as slow as you'd like. Do not feel the need to rush.”

A soothing press of fingers along my spine, his eyes watching me as I gained the courage necessary to dip my head down between his legs. 

“Start by licking.”

That same smoothing sensation. I started to lick, grimacing a little at the taste before I slowly got used to it. Thorin's hand came down to squeeze a little at the base of his cock, a soft groan coming from above me. “That's it. Lick the head,” He hissed in pleasure from the slide of my tongue against the head of his leaking cock, “Tease a little, that's right. Good girl.”

His voice shuddered down my body; I grew bolder, licking down the shaft of his heavy cock, enjoying the grunts and sharp puffs of sound that Thorin made above me out of sight. 

“Use your hand too, yes, that's it. It feels better when stimulation is along the entire length.” 

I was firm in my strokes, becoming more brave and sucking on the head, tracing the contours of his sheathed cock with my tongue, licking the underside of the head. A sharp hiss of breath from Thorin and he was starting to fidget.

“Suck me.”

I took Thorin into my mouth, flinching back in surprise when his hips bucked up. I saw his hand grip into the sheets, the other wrap itself into the curls of my hair. “Suck, yes, that's good. Hollow out your cheeks.”

I followed his instruction, sucking on him as far as I could, careful not to take it too far from what I was comfortable with. I chanced a look up at Thorin, a wave of arousal ripping through my body when I did so. His eyes were staring at me, blown so wide with lust that I felt myself lose whatever control I might have had. I sucked him in deeper, my tongue sliding along his length as I pulled out. My fingers stroking him. His face looked ruin, so utterly uncontrolled that it was intoxicating. I did not care anymore for my own pleasure, my own release. I wanted to bring Thorin his. I wanted to be the cause of it.

I sucked him gladly, a moan escaping from my mouth stretched wide around his cock, a sensation that had him moaning above me. All around us, sensations were dancing. Thorin's hard length twitching in my warm mouth, the feel of him in my hand, the sensation of his voice ghosting all around me, desperate to possess and touch.

I watched him unravel above me, his face so controlled before slowly coming undone with each suck, with each tug, with each lick. I had an urge. He hadn't mentioned it in his instruction but I adjusted my arm so that I could palm the heavy sack, my eyes locking onto his face when I saw how it made him shudder and tremble. 

Now I saw that he was beneath me, the control finally shifted. Above and beneath me all at once.

He cursed in some guttural language, his fingers gripping into the soft curls of my hair before his hips stuttered and I sucked one last time. He pulled away from me then, his hand stroking with expert efficiency as he came into the device, his release being brought along by me and stroked out by his own fist.

Thorin's face made my throat dry the moment he came. Ruined and flushed, all solemnity and need to hide emotions completely abandoned by the force of his release. I was so irretrievably lost while in his presence.

He was slow to come down, body twitching and shuddering from his exertion until finally he breathed out harshly, leaning back into the pile of pillows and looking at me as if I were something new and strange. He smiled, not believing anything he was seeing, and chuckled. 

“Give me a moment.”

I nodded, contented by the sight he made as he removed the device and cleaned himself in a familiar way. I did not worry about my own climax. Watching Thorin had been enough to quench any desire. I looked around the room, noticing for the first time that the light from the sun was low in the sky, bathing the room in a dark orange glow. 

How the time flied when one did such activities. I sighed, knowing that I would have to get back to my room so that the brothers and I could do as we planned earlier.

“What's wrong?”

Thorin's voice was calm again, coming back to sit on the bed and look me over, wanting to see what was wrong, if anything. He also looked at me because he knew I hadn't found my own release and he did not want to seem inconsiderate. He saw my eyes, my body language, and relaxed into the pillows. When he held out his arms for me to crawl into, I gladly did so, burying my face into the crook of his shoulder and neck, breathing in the scent that was Thorin Oakenshield. 

“Nothing, just have plans with the brothers tonight, is all.”

Thorin nodded without missing a beat. No hesitation, no flinch of his fingers, no hint of jealousy. He just nodded and stroked along the back of my neck with thick fingers, gentleness hiding that they could were also made for battle.

I felt myself grow bold.

“You can join us, if you'd like?”

Thorin's eyes opened and found mine, scanning the depths for what the question meant and what exactly I wished to get out of it. It was exactly as I stated though; I wanted him to come over and join us for my other lesson, another way to share in the affection that I was growing into with the line of Durin.

He chuckled, “I'm not so young as that anymore. Feel free to go without me this time.”

This time. This time. 

The words repeated themselves in my head, a grin coming to my features too quickly for me to hide. This time. There would be a chance that I could ask Thorin again in the future, another moment where he would be wanting to join in the brothers and I. It rose questions and desires in me. I wanted him now. I wanted to respect his wish. I wanted to show him that I understood. I wanted to whine to get him to come over anyway, even if just as a spectator. I wanted. I wanted. 

“Relax.”

Thorin breathed into my ear, the soothing press of his voice down my back and making me relax into his arms. I smiled at how well he knew my body, how interested he was to even learn it in the first place. I was excited for the prospect of what was to come between the brothers and I, excited even for the idea of dinner coming up shortly.

For now though, I was content just to relax in Thorin's arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who are curious, the condom that Thorin used is very real and very much interesting.
> 
> Condoms were used as early as Ancient Rome, mostly made out of a linen. For the purposes of this story, I went with the 18th century condom made of sheep's intestine. They were usually expensive to make, reusable (though you really shouldn't have done so) and yeah, pretty awesome in appearance. They basically tied onto the base of the penis with a tiny pink ribbon and were tan in color. 
> 
> They were effective in preventing pregnancy but not the passing of STD's. Thorin basically uses it around Middle-Earth because he doesn't want any illegitimate children and he doesn't want to get any strange critters. He's heard way too many stories about things that make men itch from unclean women.


	21. A Lesson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kili teaches Bilbo a very important lesson...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cocks and asses everywhere! Omg! 
> 
> If I never have to think about asses again, it'll be too soon. For some reason, this chapter was difficult and just... asses everywhere.
> 
> Also, sorry to say folks, but this is the last sexy scene like this in Rivendell. Obviously there will be other opportunities as they travel along but yeah, it won't be as bountiful as in Rivendell given that the wilds are dangerous business.

By the time I managed to get dressed again and head into the dining hall for a quick bite to eat, the sun was nearly already set. The remaining visibility in the rooms squeezed what they could from the red streaks that still painted the sky beyond the walls of Rivendell but it was a losing battle. When I sat down at the table, I saw that most of the plates were nearly empty, bits of food remaining here and there for the random straggler to dinner. As I started to take some of what was left, I looked around the room, noticing that some of the dwarves still loitered about in the room by the fire or near the balconies. I watched them absentmindedly as they sat lightly chatting while they ate or otherwise just smoked, blowing rings into the air without a care at all. 

Around us, elven maidens seemed to float by as they busied themselves lighting the numerous candles that when night fall came would keep the room from drowning in darkness. Already most of the room was bathed in a warm glow, a play of oranges that reflected in the stone dreamily. 

I ate quickly, wanting to get to the brothers and because I was starved, having not eaten my fill during lunch. During that time, Balin came over and engaged me in friendly conversation, just wanting to know how I was liking the trip so far. I spoke honestly of my feelings, of how interesting it had been in the first half but how I was looking forward to when we left Rivendell. I also spoke of how I was finding the company of the dwarves quite pleasant as well. 

His voice was a comforting gesture on my cheek, a brush of fingers tickling my skin as we spoke so casually just to pass the time. 

Soon enough, I was excusing myself and heading back to the room that I shared with the brothers, my heart starting to race again despite the fact that I had known about the activities the entire day. This new lesson would be interesting though difficult that much I knew, and I was still nervous about it. In a way I was nervous that the brothers wouldn't be as comforting as Thorin was in regards to my sexual inexperience on the subject to be visited upon.

I breathed deeply before I opened the door and went inside, not at all sure what I would see on the other side. 

Before I even realized it, the apprehension on my face melted away into one of curiosity and desire. The sight of Fili face down on the bed being massaged into the mattress was enough to melt away any sense of lingering doubt.

At the sound of the door being opened, Kili stopped in his ministrations, stopping only long enough to turn around to check if it were really me. At the sight of me and the look on my face, he beamed at me and jerked his head in a 'Come here' motion. 

As I crossed the room, my fingers decided that it was better for me to be in the light layers of my outfit, nimble fingers so long used to my own clothes that I barely missed a button before I was beside the bed in just my chemise shift and bloomers. Before me like a tasty morsel, Fili was naked on the bed, head relaxing into forearms, all the while groaning contentedly whenever Kili's hands kneaded into a particular spot of his back. Straddling his thighs, Kili too was a picture of perfectly at home nudity, hardly caring at all that his cock lie flushed against the cleft of Fili's tight buttocks.

I crawled onto the bed, not wanting just to watch them anymore, and sidled closer until I was near enough to touch either brother. With a nervous hand, I brushed the muscled skin of Kili's bicep, giddy when he turned a surprised look in my direction and grinned, a warm smile spreading across his cheeks. A press of lips, the rough stubble of his jaw underneath my fingers when I brought them up to feel the coarse little hairs prickle my skin. 

“Let's get started, shall we? Fili's positively dying here.”

Kili nipped at my ear affectionately, the quick sensation of his voice coming up around my bottom and pinching the skin playfully, before he pulled away and moved off of his brother. Upon being released, Fili groaned and flipped himself over on the bed, completely like a giant cat enjoying himself, though one could not say it was lacking of a kind of grace. When he saw me, his eyes lit up, a smile easily blossoming onto his face and a moment later, he was kissing me. 

“Alright, so, you're going to want to wash your hands.”

I nodded, quickly rushing off the bed so that I could wash my hands in the nearby basin, happy to be taking instruction and wanting to please. As I dried my hands, I couldn't help but notice that Kili and Fili started to become rather rowdy in my time away, nudging one another once a joke was made and then all out starting to wrestle. I laughed at the sight, enjoying the way their bodies flexed and muscles became more prominent when one of the brothers had to use their strength to hold the other down.

“All done!” 

I hopped onto the bed again, showing the both of them my hands; in another bout of rough housing, the result of which Fili being tossed off and pinned down into the mattress, Kili finally looked at me and grinned. “Perfect! First, prop up his hips with a pillow.”

“No foreplay? You scoundrel.” 

Fili teasingly joked with a grin on his face, his voice cupping my rear before I patted it away on my own. None of that! I was trying to focus here! 

“Oh, I gave you plenty of foreplay earlier. You're just greedy for more. Hips up!”

I didn't pay their banter much mind, it being so common place among us that it was almost like normal conversation. I listened with only half a mind, grabbing a pillow from our nearby pile, and turning back to do as I was told. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Fili pouting up at me, his lips pushed forward and his eyebrows knitted in a pleading sort of gesture.

I smiled even as I shook my head, “Hips.”

“Bossy little hobbit; you've been spending too much time with Thorin.”

A quick slap to his backside shut him up quickly enough, a look of surprise coming to his face even as he groaned and the sound of Kili's laughter erupted into the room. Somehow, by the time he allowed his laughter to slowly ebb away, the room was heavy with the scent of our desire, thick with the need to do away with the lesson completely and just see where our bodies ended up. It was tempting, I did not deny myself that, and I would have rather liked nothing more than a repeat of what happened in the forest but now was not the time. 

I turned back to face Fili, seeing Kili do the same, a swallow made audible when he caught the sight of the blonde elder back on his stomach, eyes over his shoulder. Offering. Waiting. 

“The trick to this is making sure they are relaxed -or can be relaxed- rather.”

I moved forward, entranced by the sight of Fili spreading his legs so that I could comfortably kneel behind him. My mouth felt too dry all of a sudden. I needed water, I needed to kiss him. I leaned down just to do that, a wet kiss on the perk slope, a sigh from beyond. I felt the press of Kili's chest to my back, getting into a better position so that he could see everything and touch me if he wanted to. 

He gave no more instruction than his original one and I used that lack of detail to just experiment with whatever came to mind. 

My eyes greedily drank in the sight of golden tanned skin, the firm backside so willingly offered, and I felt thirsty all over again. With hands still shaky with nervousness, I reached out to run my fingers along such gorgeous skin, smiling whenever Fili responded with a sigh of pleasure and a squirm of his hips to better entice me. 

I was enticed. 

I rose from my spot a little, bending over so that I could take him in both hands, smoothing small palms over his lower back and using the strength I had to knead into the muscles of his back. From below, Fili groaned low in his throat, a sensation groping at my bottom before it vanished, and I pushed deeper again into the muscle. When I was rewarded with a second sensual grope, I moved downward, massaging round globes of flesh and really just enjoying the fact that neither of the brothers were hurrying my pace. 

They were letting me play, letting me enjoy as I saw fit. 

As tight as Fili's perk bottom was, his skin was surprisingly moldable, compliant to anything I was willing to do as I pushed and kneaded it like it were a pile of dough. I grew bold. I had never done anything like this before in my entire life; all of it was new territory to me, and yet, when I trailed my fingers downward so that I could spread those glorious cheeks, I wondered why I had never done it in the past.

A sweet little pucker, a tender piece of flesh and muscle and it was bare before me, completely at my mercy.

I felt Kili nudge up behind me and kiss my shoulder, his fingers running along the slope, before he traced the line of my arm. I followed the movement with my eyes, body immobile as he took my hand and poured an oil onto my fingers and looked at me darkly. It smelled like flowers, a product probably snatched from the elves and appropriated to its new role in this fiendish play.

“Watch me.” Kili said curtly, smearing some of the oil on his own fingers before he pressed up against me more fully, an arm wrapped around my stomach while the other started to circle the sweet pucker of Fili's entrance. Fili's reactions were subtle, a slight shifting of hips, a rumble of a moan, but he did not flinch. 

“He's somewhat loose from the other day,” My eyebrow raised, a smirk directed at Kili. I hadn't known about any of that. An inquiry that the younger brother promptly ignored, “Some things won't change though; wait for him to relax.”

He pulled his hand away and set it on Fili's skin, nearby just in case his more expert touch would be needed. Just as I saw Kili do, I went to the tender hole and slowly rubbed it in a slow circle, feeling Fili instantly tense from the digit before he relaxed again. It was as Kili said, wait for him to relax. I was surprised that one could feel it so definitively. Beneath us, Fili squirmed against the pillow, rutting a little in a desperate need for more stimulation. The pace must have been hard on him, to be something used for study and not able to just be ravaged by one with experience. 

With a hiss of pain, Fili suddenly became animated, wincing and trying to pull away from me.

Immediately, I worried that it was something that I had done wrong, or thought that maybe my touch wasn't as enjoyable but when I looked over to Kili, I saw that he had pinched the flesh below his hand. 

“Stop that, you'll ruin it.”

Kili's voice was husky with need, pupils blown wide with arousal. My breath caught in my throat; I was so used to seeing the younger brother just as playful as Fili that I hadn't thought to comprehend the idea that Kili would be so dominant and firm while bedding his brother. 

I saw more of the comparisons between Thorin and Kili, how they seemed at home in the idea of complete control while in bed.

Kili soothed the skin gently, rubbing a thick thumb along the reddened mark until Fili had relaxed again and sighed. I watched as he pushed back against the hand and angled his rear up into the air a little. Another offering. 

“Good. Very good.” Kili's arm that had still been wrapped around me moved and I shivered at the feel of his fingers firmly massaging a breast, digits pinching a perked nipple once he felt it react. The sensation of his voice was different as well, possessive and firm in a way that was not like the other times before it. “Once he behaves, reward him.”

I watched as he slipped a finger inside the tight hole, a slight tremble from the body below that tried to push back on the intruding digit. Slowly, he pulled back and I was captivated by the sight of Fili's tight hole clench around the finger almost as if it were begging not to be taken away. A quick pinch of my nipple and I understood that I was supposed to take over again, recovering myself and reaching out to circle the button again before Fili groaned and pushed back into my hand.

A low growl from behind me, a firm curl against my backside, and Fili went still again, waiting for me and begging for me all at once. It was heady. I slipped a finger inside, amazed by the heat that I felt and how much the muscle squeezed on me. 

“Warm?” Kili breathed into my ear, teeth grazing the edge of an earlobe. Again, the possessive curl. I nodded mutely, unable to answer as I pushed into Fili's tight heat even further, pulling out a little before pushing it back in. I was rewarded with another low whimper and a rut of the hips but Kili did not protest against the behavior. 

He watched Fili. He watched me.

“Her fingers are so small, brother.”

“Is that a good thing?” I immediately asked, not wanting to displease, and saw Kili chuckle at me before moving forward to kiss my shoulder again. “In this case, no. My brother is cock hungry tonight. Put in two more fingers.”

I nodded, feeling Kili dip some oil into the crevice of Fili's cheeks, allowing me to scoop some up and rub it in before inserting two fingers and then quickly the third.

“Normally, one must work up to it. Stretch slowly, adding a finger when you can.”

I nodded again, hearing the words but not able to really process them with the amazing sight of Fili beneath me, trembling in need, agonized in his desire, as I penetrated his tight hole with my fingers and worked him. This part was what I considered easy, not really changing much between when I would pump my own fingers inside me; more from my memory, I worked a good rhythm up, thrusting and enjoying when Fili rocked back into my fingers. 

Again, I felt Kili's hands on me, slipping underneath my shift so that he could untie the laces of my bloomers and slip his hand inside. My body quivered with the extra stimulation, rocking back into Kili's hand even as I tried to focus on Fili and his reactions. It was difficult to try and focus, difficult not to indulge in the sure pace of Kili's fingers as they rubbed at me. 

“Inside him, there's a spot that will make him cry out. Find it.”

Kili ordered, breath gasping into my shoulder. I nodded again, out of habit by now, and slowed my questing fingers so that I could try and locate whatever spot Kili spoke of, my brows furrowing in concentration when all of it just felt hot and slick with oil. 

I couldn't seem to find it, stroking whatever and prodding anything that felt amazing. 

Fili cried out, his voice wracked with need, his hips thrusting back against my fingers.

I found it, a little bundle of nerves. 

“Make him cry out for you.”

Kili's voice was too much, too much like Thorin's, too much like something dark and possessive that wanted to claim. I gasped into his hand, feeling him bite into my shoulder, and I worked Fili as if he were being fucked by me.

The thought of such a thing sent a shudder down my spine even as I worked the blonde dwarf's tight hole, digits curling against that bundle of nerves that made him whimper and arch his back, momentarily disrupting my angle before I corrected it.

“Mahal, please, I need more, Bilbo!”

I had an urge. I had a thought of wanting to be responsible for my lover's pleasure. I had an urge. 

I stopped thrusting my hand, stilling myself so that I could look at Kili. We both ignored Fili's whines even as he tried to grind down on my fingers. 

I kissed Kili violently, teeth clacking against another as our tongues dueled. I wanted him. I wanted to fulfill my desire. 

“I want to watch.”

Kili froze underneath my lips, hands going still. Fili stopped moving as well, just as frozen as his brother.

I could feel both of them looking at me. 

“Truly?” Kili's eyes were wide in confusion and shock as they locked with mine, face slack with disbelief and his voice trembling against my backside. “You truly want to see us together?”

I nodded and kissed him again, “Please, Kili.”

It wasn't a request. 

Without preamble, I moved away from Kili's hands and away from the tight warmth of Fili's body, setting to situate myself off to the side of the bed so that I would not miss a moment of their coupling. The brothers were still shocked into stillness while I moved but by the time I sat, Kili seemed to have recovered himself enough. His eyes were dark again, his face taking on a predatory look. 

“Sit at the top of the bed.”

I obeyed without thinking, Kili's voice prompting me to follow without question. As I situated myself at the top of the bed, I felt movement from the brothers and looked over just in time for the pillow to be taken away and for Fili to raise up on his hands and knees. 

I would be getting the full show. 

I watched as the younger of the brothers stroked himself, eyeing the line of Fili's back before he glanced up at me. He trembled with need, using some more of the oil to slick up his thick cock before he adjusted and slowly penetrated his brother.

Just as it had been in the bathtub, their faces were beautiful. 

Though from their reactions I could probably assume that Fili had fully taken his brother inside him, it was the look on their faces that really seemed to matter to me. Kili looked desperate for it, his hair wild in his face as he started to thrust roughly into Fili. Fili's face distorted in pleasure, gasping in need and moaning how much he loved it. How good it was. 

“Does this really turn you on?”

Kili's voice still had a hint of that disbelief, a tremble against my bottom. I nodded mutely because words were lost for me. My throat needed water far too much.

I couldn't take my eyes away from how deeply Kili pounded into his brother, how utterly lost Fili looked underneath such a fierce love.. 

“Touch yourself. I want Fili to see how you get off by him being fucked by his brother.”

There was something dark about the request, something that was lying underneath the fact that the two were brothers and that it was a taboo. There was anger in his voice, punctuated by a well timed and brutal thrust, there was accusal. There was a past somewhere that wasn't being spoken about.

Fili's eyes found mine, clouded over with lust and hardly at all coherent even as he watched me spread my legs and plunge my hand down my bloomers. Having not climaxed earlier with Thorin and then brought close again by Kili, I was already soaked and quivering under my own touch, moaning with my head thrown back. Knowing that the brothers watched me as I watched them fuck each other into the mattress was incomprehensible. It was amazing. 

I was being overtaken by my orgasm quicker than I realized I would.

I was astounded by how the Durin's affected me, left bewildered as I was forced to ride out the waves of my release that made Fili's eyes widen. There was no denial that I found the brothers sexy while they were together, my quick climax evidence enough of that. There was also no denial that they found it arousing that I was so turned on by them. Kili was losing his rhythm and Fili already shouting into the sheets of the mattress, shuddering out as he came. 

Quickly he was followed by his brother, a curse on his lips and a boneless fall on top of the sweaty dwarf beneath him.

I closed my eyes, listening to the heavy pants of all three of us as we desperately tried to find ourselves from such exhaustion. I relaxed into the pillows, wishing Thorin were here to see all of it. 

Fili's questing fingers brought me back to reality, opening my eyes and seeing how he smiled up at me so adoringly that I was unable to breathe all over again. I wanted to be closer to them both and I didn't deny myself, crawling closer until I could lie down next to them and really enjoy the sweaty musk that clung to their bodies. 

Before I knew what was happening, I felt Kili crawl away from his brother and grab my hips, pulling me down so that I was forced to spread my legs for him. “What in the-?” 

I was turned over, his dwarven strength easily lifting me and keeping me flat on my belly, a hand carelessly pulling up my shift. “Kili?!”

I looked back and saw him grin at me, “Don't you know the proper way to learn anything?”

I was confused, his teasing pinch on my rear end not helping the matter as I stilled underneath his touch.

“Repetition, repetition is what Mister Balin always said.”

Fili was beside his brother, smirking down at me, and finally I knew. Finally I realized. 

“Though, technically, we will be repeating the lesson on you...”


	22. A Series of Misunderstandings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo once again has to deal with the line of Durin ruining her day...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I would like to state that this chapter just kind of ran away with itself. What started out as a short idea just turned into the monster below. 
> 
> Thank you Ladyoftheval5 for providing me with the suggestion to really make this chapter possible. Misunderstandings truly are a dangerous thing. 
> 
> Also, dialogue. Dialogue everywhere.

The following morning, I regretted ever having allowed the brothers to jump me.

I woke up to the bright sun shining in our room, tired and exhausted in a way that I hadn't been since before Rivendell. The previous night's activities were still fresh in my mind, if only because they literally ended only a few hours before all of us just passed out from exhaustion. I now knew why Thorin didn't want to come and join us. 

As I buried my face back into the pillow, I lamented the fact that he was the smartest among us, having realized long ago probably that the brothers were like beasts. Long after my fatigue physically made me incapable of riding them and long after exhaustion made me poor sport beneath them, they continued to torment me. They continued to torment each other until finally at last we were all claimed by the darkness.

Waking up before the two, I remembered how the brothers pounded into me until I was sore and wincing, cursing their stamina. Without even wanting to, I vividly recalled the stories the wives of the Shire told each other, about demons that would suck one dry of all sexual energies and spiritual strength.

I looked at the two of the dwarven brothers, hair completely mussed beyond all hope of repair, and realized that the stories didn't warn me properly about what dwarves could do. Certainly, the stories never did explain the soreness in between my legs the next morning or how when I tried to sit up, it was just better to abandon such an endeavour.

It also could not be said that our romp in the sack wasn't extremely satisfying but for the trouble it brought in the morning, I would rather not have had to deal with it at all. I suddenly found myself recalling my words to Gandalf that morning at Bag End, about adventures being nasty, uncomfortable things. Well, here was the nasty uncomfortable thing. It didn't compare to the troll snot, or the ponies, or the rain, or... 

I groaned. 

Adventures really were a pain in the ass.

I groaned again from my choice of words. 

Literally and figuratively.

Beside me, I felt Fili and Kili roll over in their sleep, groaning even as they stretched and grumbled about something incoherent before I saw the first glimpse of a blue eye.

“Good morning.”

“It most certainly is not.” I pouted, wincing again as I turned over so that I could look at Fili more comfortably. I was rewarded with a smirk and a quick kiss for my efforts though it did little to change the irritation I felt for the blonde dwarf. “Well, it's good to me. You look beautiful.”

I was too tired, too sore to really want to acknowledge Fili's voice wandering over my bottom like it had every right to do so; I wanted to smack it away and tell it to give my tender behind some space.

“I'm sure I look like death because of you two.”

“Yeah, but you were amazing last night.” Kili's voice growled low in his throat from behind his brother, a second later his head coming over and lounging over the elder's torso. He was smirking just as his brother was, a devious glint in his eye that really spoke too much of a want to repeat the events of the night before.

“You really were,” Fili agreed low in his throat, his voice groping into flesh and squeezing, “Kili, do you remember her face?”

I saw Kili grin at his brother before he swung away from his brother's torso and sat comfortably on the mattress. With another loud groan, he stretched his limbs and scratched at his tangled mop of hair. “It was nice; it reminded me of the look she had when we first took her.”

At this statement, I looked at Kili with a questioning look in my eyes, wondering just what the brothers meant by the look of surprise on my face. To me, it would be obvious why I was surprised. I had been no blushing virgin but before the brothers came parading into my life, I certainly had never done such a thing with multiple partners. Such things just weren't done in the Shire, and if they were, I had no knowledge of it.

“Ah, yes! That amazed look!” Fili laughed at the memory, his voice teasing at me, “Is that not something hobbits do?”

I rolled over onto my stomach, not bothering to look at them anymore, just wishing that I could fall back asleep. Briefly, I paused in my musings to consider Fili's question and what exactly he meant. Giving the question careful consideration, I thought of how there were plenty of things that the brothers and Thorin involved me with that weren't done by any proper hobbit that I knew. 

Which wasn't to say that maybe hobbits _didn't_ have multiple lovers, sex through less used channels, or give oral pleasure to their spouses but, once again, I had to admit that it was not something so easily spoken about in the Shire.

“Hm? I wouldn't know.”

I closed my eyes, wanting to get more rest, and figuring if the brothers wanted to continue this line of conversation that I could do so while not blinded by the sun. Silence reigned in the room for a minute, the casual movement on the brothers next to me stilled by something.

“What?”

A shared sentiment by the brothers, a doubled sensation on both of the cheeks of my bottom, a scared sort of shiver that felt strange. It made my nose turn up unpleasantly for never before had I felt their voices like that. I opened my eyes to discern through their faces what the sentiment was about, or rather the emotion behind it, and stopped when I saw their faces.

They looked pale.

“You wouldn't know?”

Again that same shiver of sensation, though this time only Fili had the breath to speak, his voice faltering in a squeak that made him gulp and clear his throat. They eyed each other nervously. 

“What? We Hobbits are not so casual before marriage.” I was confused; had I not answered the question to their liking? Were they upset that I didn't know the answer? “Before you, I had no knowledge of any of it.”

I was pretty sure that they were asking me about a hobbit being so adventurous in bed – the taking of multiple partners at once being the main thread of the conversation. Was my confusion something of a distress to them?

I was startled by the sight of their faces, the color draining so quickly (and not in the usual preferred direction!) that they were as white as our sheets in less than a second. My brows knit with concern, with a worry so heartfelt that I instantly wanted to comfort them. 

My mind was racing with thought after thought, concern after concern. Had I said something wrong? Had I accidentally offended them in some way? Given my time with the brothers, I was unaware of anything that could cause them to feel such distress.

“I'm sorry... have I said something wrong?”

That snapped them both out of their shocked state, eyes instantly softening but unable to really look at me anymore. They fidgeted in place, looking at one another, unable to keep still. I really was worried for them!

“AH! Nothing! Nothing at all!”  
“No! It's just- we thought- you just- Nothing!” 

In unison, a jumble of words that bleared by so quickly that I almost flinched at the onslaught of trembling, nervous sensation all across my bottom, unable to concentrate on one area. I barely even had time to register that Fili and Kili were bowing to me quickly, hopping off the bed, telling me in a rush that they were going to bathe and that I should go back to sleep. 

I jumped at the slamming of the door, surprised overtaking everything that they had said to me.

“Um,” I yelled gently as I sat there from my place on the bed, unable to really piece together what happened, “Are you guys sure nothing's wrong?”

Fili popped his head out quicker than I expected, cheeks flushed and a strained smile on his face, “Of course! We just remembered that Thorin wanted to train with us this morning! Go back to sleep, it's alright!”

I nodded, still unable to place that they weren't telling me the whole story but more than willing to believe them about remembering to train with Thorin. I thought back to how more than once how our leader would barge into our room to remind the brothers that they were to train with him or Mister Dwalin.

Well, if anything, I would be able to sleep more...

 

Despite wanting to trust their explanation and their constant need to tell me not to worry, I couldn't help but notice how days later, I was being avoided. What was worse was that I wasn't just being avoided by the brothers, but Thorin as well. When I finally realized it over dinner, putting together all the evidence that I accumulated over the last few days, I was shocked it had taken me so long to figure out their behavior. 

Fili and Kili were so obvious about it too, pointedly not sitting next to me during dinner anymore, a complete lack of bedroom intimacy, and even the fact that Fili now slept with his clothes on. I wondered about it from the very beginning but was put off the scent by the fact that the brothers placated me, telling me that I had no cause to worry. 

Thorin was a little harder to discern. Though we had been growing closer physically, Thorin was still not one to seek me out on his own. It was this fact that kept me from figuring out for a bit that Thorin was also avoiding me. When I finally felt the first hint of suspicion over his behavior, I decided to test my theory in a rather simple way. Never one to have refused me into his bed before, I had thought that if he accepted, then truly I was just over thinking everything and worrying too much. 

The remembrance of him standing at his doorway, proclaiming that he had a headache and couldn't entertain me that night was all it took. He failed the test with flying colors.

In conclusion: The line of Durin was avoiding me.

Add to that I didn't even want to do anything about it on this very much not good day. As soon as I woke from the night's slumber, I noticed that the brothers were gone and that second, I was going to have to change the sheets. The elven maidens would understand as it was a very natural process but I still would be embarrassed to have to give the explanation. My body ached as I pulled the sheets off the bed, bundling them into a pile on the floor and going to the bath for a long soak.

The very idea of wearing my regular attire on this very much not good day was a complete other battle. With the addition of having to pin knitted fabric into place and tied with a special apron, getting myself into my normal layers was not easy. My body felt too big for them, the confines of my vest seeming to constrain me unpleasantly and bite into my sides. I fidgeted in discomfort, eyeing my rounded chest with annoyance.

My stomach groaned in discomfort.

I hobbled back over to the bed and groaned when I plopped down on the fresh sheets, crawling up and curling around myself. While I was grateful that this had happened while in Rivendell and not on the road (as it would inevitably happen in the future), I didn't even think it was fair to bombard me with such inconveniences while I was in the most beautiful elven city I ever had the fortune of visiting. Oh, my stomach was killing me. 

I wanted food. 

My head ached and I didn't want to move. 

I wanted something greasy and fattening. 

Why were those damned Durin's avoiding me? 

Was breakfast ready yet? 

I got up and grabbed the bundle of sheets from the floor, groaning when my back protested and went out into the hallway, nodding lightly when Ori waved to me and greeted me warmly. I admit that what seemed like a nod and a friendly smile to me must have been more like a declaration of a want to duel. Ori certainly took it in such a way, squeaking off in a fright before I sighed and continued on my way.

I needed to find some elf maidens. 

Was breakfast ready? Did I already think that?

I was a horrible, improper hobbit for scaring Ori.

Maybe if I asked, would the elves make me something fat and greasy? Did elves know how to do that? Would they know what I wanted? I wondered if they would have let me use their kitchens?

Oh, my stomach hurt.

I stopped walking for a second, groaning to myself with a pained look on my face when my stomach cramped in pain, a quick exhale of air that made me exhausted just to think about how there was still more of this horrid day to come.

“Your color doesn't look too good, Miss Baggins.”

I looked over to my side, not noticing when Balin had come up beside me. His voice sounded concerned, the sensation on my cheek unfortunately dull compared to the pain of my body. As it were, I could barely feel it at all. As it was, I was ravenous.

“I'll be okay, Mister Balin.” I assured him as gently as I could, understanding all too well when the elderly dwarf looked down at my bundle in my arms and then back at me. He knew well enough to piece two and two together, a rare thing to be so insightful in our company where as he said before, the dwarves present were not some of the brightest of their race. 

“You might want to head over to Oin later on. I'm sure he'll have a tea for some of your more troublesome discomforts?”

I nodded mutely, slowly walking along beside him as we went together down the hall, coming upon some maids were beginning to clean the hallway. Politely I excused myself from Balin's company, indicating to him that this was something that was best left to privacy and in no time at all I had deposited the sheets with an apology to the maidens. While I was gently assured that it was no trouble and not to worry, I still fretted. 

I turned in the direction of the dining hall, intent on feeding the pit of hollowed hungered that festered in my body. I needed food. I needed it. Badly. 

I hoped that there was chicken. Something spicy.

When I finally came upon the dining hall, I noticed that most of the company was already present and that they were already starting to dig into the food that was sitting on platters. My stomach cramped so much, my back ached. I shuffled over to the table, waving off any concerned looks and sitting down on a pillow, groaning at how my body hated everything about sitting on it and trying to get comfy.

“Miss Hobbit, can we sit next to you?”

The sensation on my bottom was dull, barely felt at all, and I looked up in surprise at Fili smiling down at me, his brother next to him sharing his smile. Why were they asking me if they could sit down? Weren't they avoiding me? By Yavanna, that potato mix smelled good. I grunted, a polite enough expression for a dwarf but one that would have horrified any respectable hobbit. I was too hungry to care anymore, starting to shovel some food onto my plate before I felt Fili's hand on my arm stop me.

I stared at him like I wanted to murder him.

“Allow us to get you the best selection.”  
“Yes! Only the best will do.”

One after another, an indistinctive wisp of sensation that was inconsequential; I found myself looking at both of the dwarven brothers sitting on either side of me and looking at my adoringly. Were they done avoiding me now? Were they getting my food? I relented and tried to get comfortable again on my pillow seat, trying to feel as if my vest wouldn't pop a button at any moment. I waited patiently as Fili and Kili inspected each platter for the best selection of each choice of food, looking proud whenever I smiled at them for putting another bite of meat on my plate and less of the plentiful vegetables. I felt horrified that I even wanted to eat like such a brute. All meat and no greens... was any of the meat spicy?

With a full plate set in front of me, I thanked both of them gratefully and started to dig in, not even noticing how they preened at the gratitude and started to dig into their own portions that they collected after making sure I had enough. Looking up every now and then, I noticed the rest of the dwarves looking at me with smiles on their faces, amused by something that I obviously wasn't privy to. From across the table, Thorin looked particularly thoughtful about something as he stared at me.

The food was delicious and I couldn't get enough of it, even surprising Kili when I showed him my plate for another serving that he was all too happy to accommodate with a big smile. Truly, my vest felt too small now for another reason besides my body's unequal skill in that of water retention. Still, Thorin's eyes stared at me.

I don't even understand why I wanted spicy food. The thought of it sounded disgusting. 

Why were my feelings hurt by the lack of greasy chicken? 

My vest _was_ entirely too tight. I felt gross just sitting there, surrounded by male dwarves who I felt could see into my mind and see exactly what was disturbing me. 

I stood up from my spot, sudden and completely ignoring how Fili and Kili startled back at the unexpected departure, their forks dropping over plates before they tried to see if I was alright. I grunted, my hand going to my stomach unconsciously in some vain attempt to relieve myself of some of the pressure there just under fabric. “Just continue eating. It's fine; I'll see you two later.”

I promised as sweetly as I could, touching both their shoulders before they smiled at me weakly and went back to eating. Before I left, I even gave a quick nod to Thorin, still seeing those eyes studying me intensely. 

I wanted to lie back down. I wanted to get my clothes off and lounge in my under shift, chemise fabric not at all constraining even in the slightest. 

I grumbled at the way my stomach felt, shuffling along in the corridor until I was seized with the sudden urge to go back to the bathroom and make use of the elvish plumbing. Quicker than I moved all morning, I rushed back into my room and slammed the bathroom door shut, locking the door and sitting on the appropriate place. 

I wasn't going to think of it. I wasn't going to hear any of it. I _wasn't_ doing this in Rivendell. Nope, none of this was happening. I was lounging in a field of grass. I was sitting along the river banks. I wasn't here! I wasn't listening! LA LA LA! I wasn't thinking of it! LA LA LA!!

I was a monster.

I went back to the bed, stomach still clenching painfully, drained of all strength, and utterly horrified by my day so far.

I wanted to go home.

Wasn't the Lord Elrond a healer? I was sure I heard of it from Gandalf. 

I got back up from the bed, holding my stomach in pain, not even remembering when the pains were so great while in Bag End. Slowly, I went back out of the room, leaving the door open and shuffling down the hallway completely and utterly just wanting to go and lie back down in my bed. My pace was unhurried, knowing where to find Elrond, who tended to his supplies in his main healing room like clockwork around this time.

I was so dazed, so out of it that when Fili and Kili were coming up to me and tapping me on the shoulder, I at first couldn't even comprehend it. 

I was tired. 

I was hungry again. 

What was _wrong_ with me? 

Was there any spicy food that I could have made?

Why did I want to cry into the chests of the brothers?

“Miss Bilbo? We picked these for you.”

I blinked at the unusual title use for Kili but was immediately distracted by the bundle of flowers that both the brothers presented to me. Once again their faces were flush with a pride, a happiness that only came from being able to most likely correctly guess what I thought was beautiful. Indeed, the flowers they picked were gorgeous, white blossoms and pink petals arranged as nicely as a dwarf would know to. 

I smiled at them, a loving kind of smile that I hoped did not show my pain or fatigue. “Thank you both, they are gorgeous.”

I accepted both bouquets from them, leaning slightly into Fili's hand when he reached out to tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear and curl a flower where it would snugly sit. A kiss they both gave me before I watched them walk away back down the hallway. 

Back down the opposite direction of the hallway, I ventured on my own, trudging my way to the main healing chamber. I needed to see Elrond. I felt sick. Why did I think that spicy food was a good idea? These flowers smelled really good. 

“Ah, Miss Baggins, how can I help you?”

....holy Yavanna, I thought the chambers were further away. I looked around the room as if I were unsure how I even got there.

“Umm, sorry to disturb you, but, I was wondering if you had any tonic for ...” I didn't want to mention anything about my feminine issues to someone like Elrond; already I was noticing without the use of his voice affecting me so vividly that he was still just as beautiful as I last saw him. His dark hair glistened in the light of the sun and his blue eyes smiled warmly down on me. “Yes?”

I smiled, “Stomach pains.”

Yes, that was the most prevalent of my issues at the moment.

I watched as his face fell around itself with worry, his eyes reflecting a sympathy far above me that I took in comfort in even as he went to the nearby cabinet. “What kind of stomach pains? Sharp? Dull?”

“Both.”

Even though I knew that Elrond asked only to be the most helpful he could be, I was embarrassed about talking with this to an elf as ancient as he. I also understood that he was a parent who was most likely used to dealing with interesting bodily fluids but no, I wasn't about to go there with him.

Suddenly, I wanted to punch him. 

Immediately, I wanted to punch myself for thinking such a thing. 

I was a monster.

The buttons on my vest really were starting to get uncomfortable. I groaned a little from the pain in my belly, a shifting of gases that I wanted to just sleep through so that I didn't have to deal with them. 

“Both? Hmm, I should examine you if it's bad.”

“No, I'm fine.” His voice was like a dull buzz in my mind, completely and utterly incapable of drowning me in any such bliss while I was suffering at the torture of my own body. I quickly cut him off before he even started to think about seriously trying to get me on any sick bed with the intention of examining me. “Do you have a daughter?”

Having been looking into his cabinet at the time of my question, I saw his body pause before those beautiful blue eyes were upon me, looking at me closely and noting every detail that my body no doubt was quite adamantly displaying. I felt embarrassed. I felt sick. I felt hungry. I was exhausted and tired and I just wanted to scream and cry into a pillow.

“I do...”

His voice sounded interested to see where I would go with the line of thought, the need to ask such a question provoking in him a response to want to delve further for more information. I wouldn't tell him anything more about myself than I already had. I was embarrassed. I wanted to go back to my room. 

Again, the urge to punch him came up.

Again, I was a monster for thinking such things.

“Yeeeaaa...”

He blushed. I was actually surprised by it but once it became apparent what I was referencing by asking if he had a daughter, suddenly his entire face turned to that of a teenager, completely out of his element, and he seemed unable to figure out what to do with his hands on the cabinet handles. He took a bottle and held it out to me. “Take that with a warm tea. My daughter says it works wonders.”

I bowed politely to him, a soft smile of thanks on my face before I turned away and went back to my room.

I didn't want to think of his daughter in that way. She probably looked gorgeous during her times. I couldn't even really blame Elrond for his lack of foresight about how embarrassing that might have been for his daughter; my Father on more than one occasion found it easy to do such things without even thinking of it.

Back in the safety of my room, I stripped until I was just in my shift, feeling completely like I was unable to tolerate the feel of even my bloomers on my skin confining my stomach. I laid back down on the bed desperate to feel the sheets beneath me, brushing my cheek against the soft linens before I even thought of having to get up to actually make the tea that I would take with the tonic Elrond gave me. 

I napped lightly despite my desire to stay awake and make myself the tea. I didn't much care for the tea anymore even though from time to time my stomach grumbled in a rush of gas and protest that the tea would actually have been a far grander idea than what I was currently doing...

...or what was currently being done to me. 

I jumped back from my spot on the bed, scooting back quickly when I felt a dwarven hand running along the line of my thigh over the fabric of my shift. 

“What's wrong?” I was set upon immediately by Fili, his voice still quite dull against my skin, and the heat radiating off his body making me feel uncomfortable. He was too close to me; I was desperate for him to give me some space. He saw the look in my eyes as soon as my thoughts flashed past my eyes, “Were our gifts not to your liking?”

His gentle tone was so simple and concerned, a mingling with worry that made me want to lean my head forward on impulse just because I knew that when such a voice came out of the Fili's mouth, a kiss on the forehead was not too far behind. 

Still, I was confused. 

“Gifts?”

Did he mean the gestures of kindness for avoiding me? I liked them just fine but what did that have to do with him avoiding me and now suddenly being here with me now? I shivered under the heavy touch of Kili's hand on my other side, a smirk directed down at me. “Yes, courting gifts. Do Hobbits not do that too?”

“What?”

Courting? Why would they need to court me? Was I not already theirs?   
I grumbled in vague irritation; they certainly hadn't bothered to do so while out on the road...

“Courting gifts! For ones you wish to be with. We thought for days how best to make amends to you.”

“Amends?” My eyes went from one brother to the other, trying to decipher exactly why they would make amends for something they intentionally did. Unless they weren't talking about the gifts being as an apology for avoiding me, “Amends for what?”

I watched Fili's face animate into one of immense satisfaction, for undeniably he was proud of something and very much satisfied that he was finally able to clear the air. I waited with a knot growing in my belly.

“Really, we should have seen the signs.”

“...what signs?”

“You were always so surprised by whatever we did together, of course.”

Kili looked especially proud, puffing up his chest even as he slid his hand higher. I was torn between wanting to listen quietly to their explanation and back away so that the brothers wouldn't touch me. I felt entirely too gross for any of this physical contact at the moment.

“Aye, you were also so sensitive.”  
“Very tight and snug down there as well.”  
“Extremely tight.”  
“Very nicely tight. Felt amazing.”  
“Extremely amazing.”

“Excuse me!” I had had more than enough of their rambling about my lower bits, pushing Fili away so that I could sit up straighter and look at them, indignation written across from my face. Honestly, to ramble on about such a thing! 

“It just wasn't at all like what we assumed!” Kili tried to reason with me, his hands coming up in a sort of surrender.

“Wait, wait, assumed what?” I slowed him down, trying to stop him entirely.

At this question of mine, both brothers turned towards each other and smiled smugly, happy with that I must have seemed like I understood everything that they were saying so far and that they actually being allowed to explain how what they seemed to have toiled so long and hard on to figure out. 

“That you were more experienced, of course; very much at home with this sort of thing!”

“What?”

“Yes, we understand now that it was awful of us.”  
“Yes, for stealing your purity without even properly courting you.”

“P-purity?” I sputtered at the very idea that the brothers had, blown away by how wrong it was! Me, a virgin! An innocent, blushing virgin before the brothers found me! I dare say, no respectable hobbit would ever have deigned to do what I did with the brothers had they been untouched. “Yes, you were a virgin. To think we deprived an innocent of the wonderful chance to be courted by her lovers.”

“What?!”

This was a nightmare. Such a lovely confession mingled with such a horrible misunderstanding.

“You forgive us, right?”  
“Let us show our love for you.”

Back was the look of predatory lust on both of the brothers' faces, Fili moving closer to lean over me, his hand sliding up my shift so that he could dip underneath and go for what he most wanted. I was horrified by the very idea that he would see anything beneath my shift in the state I was in. That was an entirely private matter! No no no! Absolutely not!

Since Fili had already started to push up the fabric around my thighs, I grabbed the hem of my shift and tugged it down with a nearly venomous urgency. Eagerly, I scooted up the bed away from him. “Oi! Excuse you! This is highly inappropriate!”

“What? But you accepted our gifts.” Kili looked hurt by this, the obvious question running across his eyes being one of confusion. Had they done something wrong? Were they reading all the signs wrong? Yes, and yes, they had both done wrong and I was more than done myself tolerating such a misunderstanding. Before I could say anything to set the record straight, Kili moved up the bed a little to try and once again coax me into a bout of wild sex, something that I repaid back by squeaking angrily and keeping my hands on my shift, “Absolutely not!! First off, I have no idea how you got it into your heads that I was a virgin!”

They both stopped, “Not a virgin?”  
“But you said you had no experience-”

“No! I _said_ that I didn't know about any other such hobbit experience.” I looked back and forth at them, confusion still written so clearly on their faces, “We are not a chatty bunch when it comes to such matters! I was _not_ a virgin! However, I certainly do admit to my inexperience in concerns with multiple partners and a good many other thing!”

For long minutes the brothers simply stared at me, their brains no doubt working hard to put the facts together and reconcile it with what they previously thought to be accurate. I was pained by the fact that the process was taking so long, unaware and more than a little exasperated by the fact that I had found myself falling for such dense dwarves.

“So you're not a virgin?”

“Obviously.” I snorted at the poorly worded question, only because at no time on this journey could Fili have asked me such a question and would it have been correct. I was certainly not a virgin before our adventure and I was certainly not one right now. It seemed that my answer put the brothers at ease though, a long sigh escaping both their mouths as they visibly relaxed and smiled at me with a great amount of affection. Again, Fili's hand tried to work its way underneath my skirt hem. 

“...So, we can ravage you just as fiercely as before?”

At the first touch of his finger on the fabric of my apron that I used to hold everything down there together, I reacted too quickly to even process it myself. One moment I had been sitting there with my hem in my hands and the next, I had my foot connecting with Fili's face a little none too gently.

“OI! Back off! I am not going to indulge such vulgar fetishes of yours!”

“Fetishes?!”

They stared me, clueless and vague. Indignant with a sort of desperate look on their faces that made me groan in disbelief. How thick could they really be? How amazingly dense would I have to become if I were to really think of being with them?

“I am on my cycle!” I hissed at both of them, voice quiet because all the anger in the world could not make my tongue loose enough to scream where everyone could possibly hear, “I am not fit for ...bedroom activities!”

The brothers stayed silent, eyes glancing from my face to my flushed cheeks and then finally, a quick darting of their eyes to the hands still clutching the hem of my shift. Fili looked a little too long on where his hand still was... 

Slowly, he removed his hand, a faint tremor of nervousness unable to be disguised, terrified of what now lie beneath my clothing. I would have been flattered had it actually been me he thought would strike out at him like a snake and not the business underneath my shift. Kili, unfortunately was not so deterred, “Can we not just put down-?”

“Absolutely not, you pervert!!” I was embarrassed and far too horrified by the idea of lying with either brother while I was in my current state, for really given how my stomach felt, I did not feel very sexy. ALSO! It just wasn't proper of any hobbit lass! I would have no more of this talk though and certainly no more of the brothers being so unreasonably close to me. I rolled away from both of them, groaning when I stood up a little too quickly and went to the nearby closet for an elven robe that seemed like a far better idea than redressing in my tighter clothing.

“Where are you going?” They asked as they watched me tie the laces of the robe. “Obviously, I am leaving before you two get anymore strange ideas!”

With a slam of the door and no small amount of relief that I was finally out of that awkward situation, I gladly left the room and headed down in the direction of the dining hall. I was hungry again and maybe I could play a game of chess with Balin if he were amiable to the idea.

I got no further than ten steps before Thorin's door was opening and his voice was calling out for me to hold up. I stopped in my place, turning around and acknowledged him properly. “Ah, Thorin, how are you today?”

He looked as poised as ever, a quiet air of reservation tinged with just that bit of affection that usually made me smile. Today, it made me suspicious. “I am well, thank you. May I walk with you?”

I eyed him warily, suddenly very aware of why he asked. If his reasons for avoiding me were anything like why the brothers avoided me, I was not going to be that smitten by Thorin wanting to walk with me. Nevertheless, I nodded and offered with a gesture of my arm for him to lead the way. I took pace beside him, walking in companionable silence until the two of us were at the edge of the dining hall, the dwarves all inside in different states of entertainment. 

“I really must apologize for my nephews.”

“No worries, it was all just a misund-”

I froze when I felt it, his large hand at the soft flesh of my belly, resting there carefully as if it were something precious. Instantly my blood drained, a cold sweat forming on my back. Oh, Yavanna, please, _please_ , if you love me at all do not let this be as it looked. My eyes darted around the room, all too aware of how the company were looking at us in curiosity. I was mortified by the very idea of an audience, completely shocked into silence when Thorin led me by the small of my back further into the room, his hand unwilling to be moved from my belly. I hoped desperately that he felt concern over my stomach cramps.

Around me, the dwarves sat up straighter, some with highly amused looks on their faces and others with their cheeks pinked with embarrassment. I was very aware of how some of them knew that the Durin's were wrong and others had no clue as to what was happening, entirely caught up in whatever fantasy the leader painted. Thorin looked at me, his eyes deep with emotion though I realized now that some of it was similar to the look he got on his face when he gave instruction. A commanding tone directed at me and his men, a quick glance around the room.

“You need not worry. Your pain is felt amongst us all.”

“Ah,” I tried to remove his hand but he was firm, pressing closer to me the more I tried to remove the offending thing, “That's appreciated but I can take care of this on my own.”

“Nonsense. You carry an heir of the line of Durin.”

I sputtered, shooting glances around the room and feeling myself burn with an embarrassment that was almost far too great for sanity. “What?!”

“Congratulations are in order, Miss Baggins!” I looked at Ori, my heart racing. “Indeed, taming such ferocity!” Dwalin added in, coming over so that he could give me a proper pat on the back. In a sense, I was thankful he did not head butt. In another, I was close to being sick with how much none of this was actually accurate or how mortified I was. Balin, bless his soul, had enough sense to hide his head, looking embarrassed enough for the both of us.

“To think they could have been so careless; first by bedding you without a proper courting,” My jaw dropped, “And then to have such a young virgin become with child so quickly.”

“Oh wow... wow...”

I felt sick. I needed air. I felt way too much as if Bofur were explaining what Smaug was to me again. The room spun, sweat making my forehead damp. Unable to stand it any longer,I backed away from the hand instead of trying to remove myself. Thorin looked entirely too pleased with himself, a look of formal pride on his features that I just couldn't condone in any way, shape or form.

I wouldn't eat food again. I still needed air. 

“Naturally your fertility is to be commended but rest assured, we will make sure you are cared for.”

The dwarves around us who didn't have a clue as to what was really happening gave a cheer in the air, raising their tankards and drinking deeply to the supposed joy that was on the way. I was still so very shocked, unable to comprehend the words necessary to tell them just how wrong they were.

“Wow... just wow.... Just no. No.”

“Miss Baggins?”

I was too dumbfounded, just so very dumbfounded by what my life had become. What would my Mum and Dad thought if they knew that this event would be in my future? Oh, I was sure my Mum would laugh at me, amusement quickly overtaking anything else while my Dad would have tried to punch Thorin more than once. Such things just weren't announced in public without a proper conversation! Truly, the differences between dwarven and hobbit culture were so very vast on some subjects. 

I needed to make my retreat. I was already backing away.

“I'm going to go and murder your nephews right now.”

“I will allow you to do as you please but do be considerate of your condition.”

I didn't acknowledge what he said, just standing slack jawed before I turned away entirely and left, a new purpose giving my feet speed. I was going to kill those brothers and I was going to kill myself. Really, how could I have fallen for such dense fools?


	23. The Last Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and the company spend their last three days in Rivendell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this chapter was rewritten at least 3 times before I ended up just sticking to this version of it. 
> 
> Thank you writerchick0214 for reading this chapter for me and giving me the confidence to believe in my original gut instincts with it.
> 
> Sorry about how late it is but yeah.... I just wasn't feeling up to any writing. 
> 
> ALSO! We're done with Rivendell. Using Bofur's own words: "We're Off!!"

The days grew longer, the nights hotter. Spring was coming to an end, steadily slipping into summer the more the days passed. Nights in which we were woken by the sticky feel of sweat upon skin had long become normal, lighter clothing being worn more freely while they still could. 

With the awareness of summer upon us, the company had grown concerned with the passing of our time in Rivendell and how our remaining few days were spent. Having been cooped up in Rivendell made the dwarves antsy at first but now that they were nearing the end of such peace, they took to the very idea as if they were lazy cats. 

They relaxed fully, ate even more aplenty, and spoke more freely than they already did, opening up to one another and sharing all manner of story. They slept underneath the sun, happy to have me join them and nap.

Having before felt like my world was focused entirely on the line of Durin, the horrid day of misunderstandings gave the group a surprisingly much sought after chance to include me into their fold in various ways. I was not entirely comfortable with them, nor did I think I would be for a long time yet, but I was happy to be included. 

Simple moments with them were spent; quiet moments smoking with Nori as he showed me how clever he was with slight of hand tricks, Bifur being just someone to share a companionable silence with since I couldn't understand him. Ori and I discovered that we both knew how to knit and the two of us compared techniques, sharing the duty of holding the yarn for the other. 

Hours were spent in a tranquility that made my heart swell, my memories of Bag End slowly becoming second in what made me truly happy.

More and more, I felt that Rivendell was truly the last refuge of our happiness in the coming journey. 

Such things as Thorin making a bumbling fool of himself in regards to my supposed pregnancy were so easily laughed over, a constant teasing jest that made me laugh after a while. Though Thorin felt his only penance for such embarrassment was to lock himself in his room to avoid being teased so much, quickly he was pulled out of his brooding state by Balin.

Given the nature of such an embarrassment, without even needing to explicitly state anything, the other dwarves knew of my relationship with the line of Durin, though they seemed to not understand that Thorin too was involved. As a whole, they figured my interest only lie in the brothers but after a few sly comments, I knew that Dwalin and Balin knew of Thorin being involved as well. Their approval put me at ease since they were closest to our Leader. 

It felt nice to have such a weight lifted from my shoulders, feeling as if I did not know if it were appropriate or not to mention our relationship aloud. While Hobbits did not make a habit of speaking of their sexual endeavours, the dwarves made it no small secret what they saw as normal. More than once I heard stories of indistinct couplings, some nearly in streets, and how the race as a whole were quite passionate.

Having lost so much in their pasts, they believed in loving wholly, giving their bodies almost freely and their hearts quickly following. As long as I understood that a dwarf's affection could be given as wholly or as little as they pleased, they did not mind that their burglar wanted to lie with the line of Durin. It was the strangest version of the _'don't hurt them'_ conversation that I ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

A side effect of that day also was that it put out in the open how little Thorin, Fili, and Kili and I actually spoke openly to one another of what was really happening between us. So much of our lives were spent not speaking of arrangements and what we were starting to feel for one another. Given how badly the four of us frequently misunderstood one another, it became apparent just how much we needed to talk about where we all stood. 

After that day, the brothers and I finally realized that we had long ago reached the point where living in that vague sort of knowing no longer made us content.

The brothers started to speak with me more freely, our emotions becoming more intermingled with each sharing of words, of moments that were singular and belonging uniquely to only two of us. I felt the comfort in my heart grow into a fragile love for the brothers. Moments shared in their company became priceless, something that I grew to treasure. 

Sitting silently underneath a tree with Kili in the sunlight had become like the food I ate. 

Baths with Fili that were eventually reduced to splashing matches became like the water I drank. 

Fili, who was so easily captured by love, gave his heart freely, seeking from me a happiness that he said could only be found in my arms. I craved his easily earned affection, his devotion. I enjoyed what the two of us allowed ourselves to feel so freely.

In contrast to his nephews, Thorin remained the same as ever, content to leave any talk of our relationship and where it was cleanly out of any conversation.

Quite ardently, we did not speak of our precarious bond. Purposely, we did not speak of the affection that we both shared for each other when we were alone in bed. He allowed me to touch him as I desired. We did not force ourselves into any act when we did not wish to. 

I had grown close to him in other ways as well, enjoying the way he would let me play in his hair, though he would not allow me to braid it for him. 

More than once, I found myself wondering what he withheld from me beneath the surface, what he might have felt for me but did not want to speak of. Given his natural solemnity, I did not take his silence as dismissal or lack of affection. For Thorin, who had lost the most of the company present, it was simply harder for him to give anything as easily as Fili or Kili might have.

In order to allow myself not to think too much on Thorin, I spent my time with the rest of the company, wishing to grow closer to them. More often than before, I found myself sitting in the company of Balin, an easy conversation keeping the air friendly as we played chess. We found our matches evenly drawn, though I noticed that Balin was better at overall strategy and I at misdirection. I found myself laughing when Bofur taught me the steps to some dwarven dance that was so very different from the dances I learned in the Shire.

I was teased for losing card games with Dori, Nori, and Bombur. Harassed until I agreed to arm wrestle with Dwalin, his large hand nearly crushing mine before we even started to apply pressure.

Our joy came so easily, understanding how hard things were to be in the future. Still, there was a dragon at the end of this quest, still there were vast complications that we could not predict. 

Purposely we forgot.

Well, not all of us. 

Thorin could not be made to forget, always on edge whenever someone spoke of the journey ahead. He waited for the night that Elrond could read his map with an urgency in his limbs. All of us waited on edge in those moments, happily forgetting when he left the room.

All of us did our best to pass the time in a routine that would not belie our true apprehension. Maybe it was just me who felt such apprehension and I was shadowing it across the group? 

Whenever I found my worry too great – my fear of Smaug unable to be suppressed - I retreated to Thorin and wished for him to comfort me with his solid presence, never feeling the need to verbally assuage me. I stayed by his side as he read, or allowed him to distract me with physical comfort. 

When he was wary and did not want for company, I left him be and retreated back to the brothers. 

Nights spent in that sweltering summer heat next to the brothers in bed, I found that as I looked at them, I almost could not breathe. I stared at their sleeping faces with a brazen want, fueled only more by Fili's eagerness to give me love. When I was not feeling selfish for their attention, I allowed myself to relax and understand what existed between all four of us; the tenderness surrendered an underlying thread of unspoken devotion that echoed throughout our remaining time.

When I continued on with my lessons of dwarven dancing, steps taking me around the dining room in a fast paced twirl of skirts and laughter, I found myself looking at the brothers as they smiled at me. They were happy that I was being included in little ways throughout the group, though only Fili was spoken to about how I still felt as if I were dependent on their approval to receive such affection from the company.

The brothers approving of me and wanting me in their company as something more than just 'the burglar' had become so important to me. Thorin's approval became something that I sought for, though I was currently at no means to try and do so.

Their combined approval became especially important when I witnessed arguments between the brothers. Not usually prone to full blown fights, when they did lash out in anger at each other, they became bitter and cruel. Heated words heard through doorways and interrupted when I walked into the hallway at the wrong time, quickly turning from understandable tongue to their guttural native language. The overt fury that Fili had on his face in those moments was matched only by the disgusted rage on Kili's, both of them haunting me and making me unable to speak with either of them.

I could not shake the feeling that they were arguing about me, though even Thorin told me not to worry about the brothers. They argued and moved on, always eager to go back to their status quo. 

In spite of the fragility of our relationship, of the days still to come that would make such open tenderness difficult, I found myself seeking out the dwarves of the line of Durin and allowing myself to admit that I had fallen in love.

Immediately after my admittance, I found myself afraid of such a notion because it seemed so fragile, so easily breakable now that it was new. Somewhere along the way, I had become frightened of the very idea of us leaving Rivendell, as if this place were what made my relationship to Thorin, Fili, and Kili real.

What would happen when we left? 

I asked myself that question so many times that I was sure that I would drive myself crazy trying to think of answer. Balin tried to distract me with our game, pieces moving slowly with much mulled over strategy, our sides evenly matched until I heard steps approaching us. When I turned my head and was greeted by the sight of Thorin walking towards us, stiff and far from amused, I knew what he was going to announce. 

I knew it as soon as he looked into my eyes, the hardness of a Leader staring back at me. 

"Miss Baggins, Gandalf has asked that you be present for tonight."

I felt it then, the sense of calming magic that was here in Rivendell, come abruptly to an end. I understood it, our time in Rivendell was over. We would leave in the morning regardless of anything that was said to deter us.


	24. Learning the Tricks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and the Company leave the safety of Rivendell and make their way through the beginnings of the Misty Mountains...

The following morning, the company woke with great care and hush. Well, as much as great hush and care as a company of dwarves could manage. 

I was roused rather noisily by Fili, who leaned close and whispered to me to get dressed even as he did so himself. Despite having known the night before that we would be leaving the following day, even I was confused about what we were doing since the sun wasn't even in the sky yet. I was slow to wake, turning back over in bed and wanting to tell him to leave me be but he just insisted to get up and get dressed. Kili was already finished packing their things and quickly stuffing my belongings back into my humble backpack. 

Taking a moment to look at their urgency, I realized that this was very real and that we would be leaving very soon. I rolled off the bed in a great huff of fabric and linen and dressed quickly. I snickered at the thought of us, the three of us seemingly like we were about to escape from Rivendell after having committed a crime. We all worked fast in the near darkness, my hands buttoning shirts, righting skirts, and belting my sword before I joined the brothers near the doorway. Already they were readying their packs and on Kili's silent gesture, I offered him my back so he could help me with mine. It was heavier than I remembered but before I was given a chance to ask, we were leaving.

We were joined in the hallway by the others, some of them still filing in until we all stood at the ready, waiting for Thorin to come and make his appearance. 

We did not have to wait long for only minutes later, Thorin was out in the hallway, waiting for the rest of us to gather before his eyes assessed each of us and nodded. 

“We are to go on ahead through the mountains,” Thorin's voice crawled over my neck gently, the touch making me shudder lightly. I heard a faint murmur from the group around me, their voices echoing against my skin but Thorin continued as if he heard nothing, “We shall do so without Gandalf for now. Be quiet as we leave... we cannot alert the others.”

I followed the group as we made our way out of our hallway and thought I understood why we were leaving Gandalf behind and why we would even sneaking out of Rivendell in the first place. My mind raced with the events of the night previous when we looked upon the map of Erebor and saw the moon runes. Thorin and Balin looked more than flustered over the newest piece of information about having to be at the Lonely Mountain's secret door by Durin's day but just to leave in such a way? I eyed everyone's packs, all of them looking to be more fully stocked than when we arrived...

So we snuck away because they were all pantry thieves?

Still, as we crossed back under the archway leading out to the cliff side ledges, I couldn't help but feel how wrong it was to continue without Gandalf, though the wizard himself knew he would not be joining us. It felt strange to not be with him on our journey anymore and his presence was comforting to more than just myself. I knew that in a way his presence assured even Thorin, believing that wizards could very nearly do everything.

To leave behind the safety of Rivendell was another matter for me entirely. My love for the city in general from my time there and my love from books made me turn back to look upon the city with a longing in my eyes. Things just seemed so much more simpler there even though the place instigated hardly anything simple. It fostered my relationship with the Durin's and brought me closer to other Skin-Listeners. I would miss Rivendell greatly. 

“Be on your guard, we're about to step over the edge of the wild!”

Thorin's voice gripped my arm defensively and urged me back but I wanted my one last look of the elegantly built city so that I could dedicate it to memory. 

"Miss Baggins, I suggest you keep up."

His voice nearly made me step back and I rolled my eyes at his forceful tone, completely unnecessary given that dwarves were still making their way past me on the rocky ledges. 

 

No longer having the luxury of ponies, our journey was to be taken by foot through the entirety of the Misty Mountains. The way through such mountain paths were known to be treacherous, given both to deceptions and infested with all manner of evil thing. I spoke with Balin as we climbed along ledges, peeking at what looked to be a hastily drawn map by Gandalf; I learned of the many paths leading from Rivendell that led to no where at all or to caves that would trap. The evil that lurked in the mountains were normally goblins but the map showed that a cave could lead to something a little more dreadful than that at times. 

Our journey was slow without the ponies through the cliffs as well, dwarves not really being known for their grace and needing to take it slower with the addition of their heavy packs to sling around. The windy quiet of the mountains surrounding the hidden valley rustled heavily in my hair and the silence of the area made everyone quiet. 

Even when we finally stopped for a light breakfast, the group was quiet though Fili and Kili sat close to me and I accepted slices of Fili's apple that he cut up and offered in turn to both his brother and I. It was nice to see them both in a right mood rather unlike the gloomy company, joking when Kili made choking noises in my direction around his apple. 

My quiet chuckles made some of the group turn their heads in interest and I was separated from the brothers a moment later by a harsh glare and reprimand given by Thorin. I waved to them as they were called off to scout the way ahead.

After breakfast, we continued onward through the cliffs. 

I reminded myself that the journey would be long and harsh from here on out, taking us up and up further into the high mountains where snow capped the peaks regardless of the sweltering summer that was going on below us. However, that would be in the days to come. For now, we would need to travel many miles just to leave the valley.

Despite the silence of the mountains, eventually the dwarves lifted out of their somber moods as the hours dragged on. 

During a late lunch, I sat next to Nori, Dori, and Ori and what was originally going to be a conversation between the youngest and I about the different knitting patterns for gloves, turned out to be another lesson between Nori and I about sleight of hand tricks. 

“See, now, I'm going to make it disappear.” 

My nose tickled as I listened to him, though I shook my head just the same at his bold claim, “No way! You can't. There's nowhere to put it.”

“Just watch, alright?"

We were huddled together near the center of the group, the brothers nearby behind me eating while Dwalin and Thorin watched over the group and the surrounding area like overprotective parents. I faced Nori, my attention fully on him for good reason considering that I was sure I was being had. I grinned at him, eagerly wanting to see the newest trick he performed for me with astonishment while Dori peered at us and shook his head as if not to tell me to encourage his brother. 

Nori held his palm closed around one of his spare hair clasps, his other hand gently using one of Ori's many writing quills as a “magic wand” to magic away the hair clasp. 

“I'm going to count to three, I promise it'll disappear. I swear!”

I giggled in delight, waiting, my nose tickling. I watched as he tapped his fist with the quill one, two, and three- OH! The quill was gone! 

I tried to keep from giggling too much and closing my eyes, hearing how Nori laughed at his own trick too. He looked surprised to find the quill tucked safely behind his ear. “OH! I didn't mean that! Silly me!”

The brothers nudged closer to either side of me as I watched Nori continue his trick, “Now! No funny business, I swear. I'll make it disappear this time!”

Again, he used the quill to tap his fist held round the clasp. One, two, three times and – No way!! I gasped in surprise when Nori opened his hand and the hair clasp was gone. Entirely gone and disappeared from sight! “How did you?!”

I reached for his hand and pulled it this way and that and he allowed me to inspect his sleeves to see if he didn't have it stashed there. Finally when I could not find the hair clasp, I leaned back on my knees and clapped, “That was amazing!” 

“Oh, Miss Baggins, I wish you wouldn't encourage him.”

Dori was exasperated by the entire thing, a slight shake of his head though Ori himself eyed the trick with interest and a smile of his own. 

“I thought it was rather brilliant.”

My hands tickled with the feeling of fur against the skin and I watched as Nori held up his hand again, tapping again three times before he opened it up and there was the hair clasp as if it had never left. This time even the brothers clapped at the trick and I was just as amazed as ever.

When lunch was over and we were back to walking along the rocky ledges, Nori once again showed me the trick and asked if I wanted to learn it. I eagerly nodded and stayed close to him, utterly blown away by the fact that once I discovered the trick to it, it was hardly at all very proper and why Dori didn't want it to be encouraged in the slightest. Still, it made for something to do along the way and I watched him as he instructed, whispering so that no one else but me would know how it was done. 

I practiced the motions of it a few times, stopping a few times when Nori's voice made me unable to concentrate, before I finally got the hang of it. It was all about misdirection, which as I learned from Balin in the days before was my specialty.

“Burglars have to be very good at misdirection, Miss Bilbo!”

I nodded and went about the motions of the trick, a look of serious concentration coming to my face as I tried counting and palmed the hair clasp in my fist tightly. “Relax!” 

So used to hearing Thorin tell me the exact same thing, I felt my cheeks flush from the memories of the times when he told me to relax; my limbs loosened even as I felt Nori jostle me to try and do it for me. Sharing an easy laugh, I went back to the performing of the trick and tried again to get the movements of it down.

 

We had been walking for hours by the time I finally managed to successfully pull off the act, the trick having long distracted me into not even realizing how the time was passing. I looked around to see the brothers whispering to each other, a nod every so often and Thorin seemed to glower at Dwalin who walked next to him, a shared conversation between them as well.

I looked back down at my hands and did the trick again, trying to will myself to become comfortable with it even as I did it again and again. Repetition, repetition was what Balin always said of lessons, as the voices of the brothers reminded me. I did it one last time before even Nori deemed me sufficient with a quick nod and a pat on the back. 

“Do you think I can show Fili and Kili?”

I was eager to show them what I learned, even though they had already seen it done by a master of the sleight of hand himself, but with a smirk of approval and a thumbs up for luck, I sprang off towards the brothers and side stepped around Bifur before I planted myself on Kili's right side. 

“I learned the trick!”

Kili's eyes glanced at the hair clasp and quill in my hands, a whistle coming from his lips a moment later, “Oh? Will we need to worry about our possessions mysteriously disappearing in the future?”

His voice pinched at me playfully and I elbowed him gently. With both Fili and Kili looking at me, their attention divided between the rocky terrain and my show, I got ready to show them. My hands did the flourish that Nori showed me but just as I was going to go into the first words of the trick, Thorin interrupted, “Fili, Kili, go help Balin up front. Your eyes are the best amongst us, after all.”

The brothers straightened to the command and nodded their assent before looking down at me; Kili shrugged his shoulders helplessly and ruffled my hair, darting up ahead while Fili looked at me with a sad smile on his handsome face and followed after his brother. My good mood deflated instantly, watching them go until I looked at Thorin, whose eyes stared at me. I quickly went to his side, stepping into line with him and held up my hands, “Can I show you the trick that Nori taught me?”

I had hoped it would cheer him up but Thorin was being extra grumpy it seemed and his eyes hardened on me, a frown coming to his face so quickly that even I frowned at him in response. “Miss Baggins, you'd do well to remember your place out here.” My eyes widened in shock. Instantly I wanted to know if I misunderstood his meaning but his tone was hard, his voice an unyielding pressure against my shoulder blades that pressed uncomfortably. “It's dangerous and hardly a place for such tricks either. Best to keep your guard up.”

I was waved off then, a look of surprised astonishment on my face for how Thorin so easily dismissed me. 

I tried to shake off his newfound cold attitude towards me, thinking that it was just him being a protective leader or not wanting to give me any special treatment given our new standing with one another since Rivendell. I did the best I could to try and perk back up but his words did not sit well with me and I unconsciously slowed my steps until I disappeared back into the group.

I was quiet as I walked along, my feet not really registering the rocky terrain as I climbed up the ledges and twisted back down. It wasn't until Bofur caught my eye with a quick smile that I finally perked up again and rushed to his side and held out the two objects, “Can I show you something that Nori taught me?

I watched his eyes give a quick glance in Thorin's direction before he smiled down at me in a way that was rather too apologetic for one about to view a trick, “Sorry, lass, don't really think now's a good time. Maybe later?”

While his words were dangerously close to making my feet tickle, I still felt a pit open up in my stomach such was the pure disappointment I felt when I realized that Bofur didn't want to see my trick. In a way, I wondered if I were being unreasonable to want to show off for only five minutes but with the way that Bofur immediately took off from my side, I instead thought that it wasn't even about my trick. 

I felt like a pariah all of a sudden. Bofur had reacted to Thorin's disapproval.

I looked down at the silly little objects and sighed; I went back to Nori's side and offered them back, ignoring the look of confusion and worry in his eyes. “Did they not like it?”

I itched my nose from Nori's concerned voice even as I brushed off his question, trying to show him that it didn't matter anyway...

For the rest of the day, the group walked along the cliff sides until finally we stopped for the night sometime as the sun finally set. Having found a wider outcrop in the mountain side, we all set down our things for the night, happy and glad to finally get off our feet. I was happy to be able to sleep the night away or at least get a good dinner in me but Thorin informed the company in quick orders that we would not be able to get a fire going due to the dangers around and to keep it quiet for the duration of the night. 

I sat down to eat a cold bit of dinner -bread with some cheese- and realized that due to the silence of the mountains around us, anytime someone spoke too loud, their voices would echo off the rocky cliffs. It was truly a strange feeling to feel so exposed under the night sky and the chill of the mountains. Self consciously, I tried to tuck away the sensation of feeling unsafe while away from Rivendell but only really managed it when Fili and Kili came to lay down their bedrolls next to me.

The company went to sleep shortly after dinner with little else to do and because it had been the first day in nearly two weeks of long travelling time. I remembered listening to their soft winded complaints of how they were hardly used to it anymore given their lazy two weeks in the company of elves. I did not have anything to complain about myself lying between the two brothers, happy to feel their warmth seeping into my body but none of us were really tired enough for bed and took to whispering of things that held little importance. 

“Fili, Kili, Miss Baggins, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I suggest you rest.”

I grumbled underneath my breath and rolled over to my side, wanting to put my back to Thorin's voice from where he no doubt took first watch. I couldn't stand how grumpy he was being but upon Kili's chuckle, I felt like I was a bit out of line about the entire thing. Was I missing something about Thorin's attitude? I didn't feel I was.

“Come closer.”

Fili whispered in my ear, nudging me closer until I figured out to move into his chest where the steady rise and fall of his chest made light sensations against the skin of my rear. “Ignore him; talk to me for a bit longer.”

I looked up at Fili as best I could, even as I registered the feel of Kili pressing closer to my back to close the gap between us. “I wanted to see your trick today. Show us tomorrow?”

I smiled at how Fili seemed to understand exactly where my day went so wrong and I snuggled close before I started to talk with Fili until Kili's lightly snores prompted us to find some sleep for ourselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those curious, here's the trick that Nori showed Bilbo. 
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLzqcUrIrzw
> 
> PS. That guy's hair is crazy awful.


	25. Friendly Chit chat with Iglishmêk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Traveling through the Misty Mountains, you gotta go up and up before you go down to go back up!

When we woke at dawn, I realized that my feet were sore from how far we had walked the day before. That was a rather unusual feeling for me since I was a hobbit and never before had my feet ever felt sore from extended walking. Well, not in such a long time anyway... I was used to my walking adventures back in the Shire but notably that was also on soft tilled earth that was so far removed from the rocky passages that I found myself traversing now.

If the soreness of my feet weren't enough, the familiar pressure of snoring pushing down on my chest unpleasantly made me shift from my spot against Fili in discomfort. As soon as I moved though, Fili was woken and he looked at me in a daze before kissing my forehead and putting his head back down against his pack. While any other morning I would have enjoyed such treatment, even relishing the feel of his arms closing tighter around me, this morning was not one that would be able to. I was irritated just from the sensation of the snoring pressing down on my chest and now with Fili pressing me towards him, I felt overwhelmed.

I laid there, torn between not really wanting to move and the feeling of becoming steadily more irritated.

Unable to deal with it any longer, I untangled myself from Fili's arms, sending him a quick smile when he looked at me in confusion and waited for my hand gestures to let him know that I wanted to go to the bathroom (or something, I wasn't exactly sure what I signaled). It was still early morning, the visible light of the sky being a soft blue that streaked in patterns across the dark night sky. As soon as I was on my feet, I saw that a few of the other dwarves were up but that most were still asleep, though Thorin was decidedly absent from that pile.

The snoring pervaded my senses, making it hard to breathe, and I toed my way through the pile of dwarves until I was at the edge of the camp and happy to have the cold wind in my ears drowning out everything but its own sound. The sensation of the sound of wind was pleasant enough, a chilling taste in my mouth that helped to clear out how foul my mouth felt so soon from waking up. I reminded myself to brush my teeth as soon as I got back to the camp.

“Miss Baggins?” 

I jumped at the sound of Thorin's voice behind me, twisting around to look up into his hard gaze and internally pouting over the fact that he seemed to be in just as grumpy a mood as he was yesterday. He looked at me strangely, his eyes watching me for the obvious signs of my surprise but gaze not softening even when I patted his arm in relief, “Sorry, you scared me! Yes?”

He looked at me intently before looking over to where I had been staring mindlessly into the distance, “Do you want to go back so much?”

His voice trembled over my clavicle, unsure but very much a solid presence as compared to some of his other more timid sensations. “Go back?”

I was confused by his question only because I hadn't actually been looking at anything while I stared out into the wind. It wasn't until I looked again where I had been watching and realized with a start that it was in the direction of Rivendell in which I stared so intently. Had I actually been staring at something in general, that was, which I hadn't been. I knew that my mind was a blank canvas this morning but even as I looked at Thorin, he didn't seem to believe me.

“Oh! No! No!” I tried to reassure with another touch but his gaze hardened again and he seemed to want to dismiss me as easily as he used to do in the beginning of our journey together. “I just was listening to the wind.”

“The wind?” He looked skeptical but I took his eyebrow raising in curiosity as a good sign of his changing mood. “Yep, the wind. Sounds cold!”

I pointed to my mouth, not exactly wanting to explain to Thorin that I found the snores of his dwarf companions annoying and uncomfortable. It felt incredibly rude and even a bit on the offensive side given that Thorin was not in the best of moods.

He looked at me for another moment before closing his eyes against the next rush of wind. When he opened them, he was backing away from me and turning away, “Hn, well, do not stray too far from camp.”

With just those words – those simple words that hardly meant a thing at all to me given all that we shared before – Thorin was gone, leaving my side and heading back to camp to probably try and catch an hour of sleep. Thinking that the idea itself was grand but unable to tolerate the sound of the dwarves' snoring, I went to where Dwalin sat on his own morning watch. 

As much as I wanted to engage him in some sort of conversation given how close he and Thorin were, I was unable to really think of anything to say at all. Dwalin himself was not a dwarf prone to many words either and remained silent; it was far from a good silence though. It felt awkward at best and given that before Dwalin used to tease me, I wondered why suddenly we could not connect even on that level? 

Sitting next to Dwalin, I felt lonely. I wondered if he and Thorin talked about me during the night and that was why the bigger dwarf did not want to speak with me now?

 

Up, we climbed, the growing inclination making my thighs burn and my pace slow because of how hard it was climbing such terrain. Up, and up until I realized that we were actually going down at an equally sharp decline that the dwarves had to take slow due to how many things they carried. All of us steadied ourselves around the rocks, our hands gripping stone when we could, a few of us sliding about whenever we lost our sure footing.

Fili and Kili were always there to make sure that I was alright but the more I stumbled, the more I noticed that Thorin seemed to grumble in a disdain over the entire thing. He looked at each of us as we passed through the harsh landscape, last to finish so that he could watch everyone and see how best to gauge whether or not to take a break. 

We ate lunch when we could, though it wasn't much of a stop.

 

Out of the valley we went and from there, we would need to continue onward through the fields found at the high elevation, our steps bringing us ever closer to the mountain peaks that we saw in the distance. Even just knowing in passing that I would need to climb those things made me weary and grumble about wanting to go back to the Shire. 

Close to sunset one day, the company stumbled upon a small waterfall that emptied into a tiny pool and we used it to refill our water skins and clean up a bit from the past few days of travel. Though we had begun to joke about the journey again, our mood eager to turn jovial again at any moment, Thorin broke up the lightheartedness easily and onward we started again.

We slept uncomfortably that night as we had done the night before. We woke uncomfortably as we had done the day before. 

 

Onward, we continued after a quick breakfast.

The journey was hard on my hobbit feet, hard at times for the dwarves as well though they were far more used to travelling distances for the need to work, as the brothers explained to me. Though they hadn't gone out into the world nearly as many times as Thorin, they regaled me with stories of their adventures and that of Thorin's until it was time for lunch. We were a bit surprised that we were allowed to talk for so long, Thorin having been always right behind us ready to separate the three of us into more useful “endeavours”.

Sometime after lunch I realized that maybe the lack of sleep had finally worn down Thorin somewhat for he was less irritated and not so quick to separate the brothers and I. He watched us all heavily out of the corner of his eye as we moved along the grassy terrain but he did not feel the need to send Fili or Kili ahead to scout the paths. Almost, it looked as if he would entertain a moment to actually join our conversation.

At some point in our walking, Fili and Kili were called up to scout the path ahead to make sure that nothing was surprising about it. Left alone while all that happened, I found myself bored and feeling the effects of the journey again without anything to distract me. 

A grunt and a sharp poke on the shoulder was enough to pull me from my thoughts and when I looked over, I was surprised to find Bifur of all people trying to actually engage me in conversation! Had I looked so lonely that even the only full time native speaking dwarf would actually attempt to preoccupy me? Well, lonely looking or not, I would accept the companionship. Eagerly. I looked at him curiously as he followed in line, his guttural words pressing into my ears and making me frown with suppressed giggles. 

“He's saying that the cloud looks like a pup we once owned.”

I startled at the tickling of my feet and Bofur's voice on my right coming up beside me, his hand extending up to point at the blue sky overhead. Given what he said, I actually looked up, surprised when I indeed saw something that looked like a dog. I thought of the times my Mum and I played such a game while in the Shire when I was a wee hobbit lass. Once Bifur saw me nod in his direction that I understood, he grinned and pointed up towards another cluster of white clouds, another string of words that I couldn't understand following. 

“That one looks like a turtle, he says.”

“What language is it that you even speak?”

I asked in Bifur's direction because I knew enough about him from months of journeying to know that while he did not speak Westron, he could certainly understand it. He looked at me before sharing a look with his brother, Bofur. 

“Here, ask like this.”

Bofur directed his attention back at me and started to show me something with his hands, a quick gesture followed by a circle and a strange pointing back at Bifur. “Repeat.”

Bofur showed me again and I mimicked it as best I could given that I really had no clue what I was doing.

When I made the signs at Bifur, he looked at me and responded back with his own words (and a tickle in his voice) and a quick series of hand gestures back at me. I looked to Bofur for clarification, “He said that he speaks Khuzdul, our native tongue.” 

A pinch on my rear was enough for me to turn around and grin at Fili, who had come up out of nowhere with a smile on his face. “Are you guys teaching her Iglishmêk?”

“Iglishmêk?”

“Aye, Bifur's been wantin' to talk to her for a bit now. Figured now's a good a time as any.”

I chuckled at the sensation of his voice, trying to hide the twisted smile on my face that became all but impossible when Bifur started again with his own voice and hand gestures. 

“What's Iglishmêk?” I repeated when no one had actually answered my question.

“It's like a sign language, for those who can't speak and the like.”

“- or those who can't speak Khuzdul.”

“Khuzdul...? That's what your native tongue is called?”

“Yep, look.” 

I listened to the roll of Fili and Bofur's voices over me, making me squirm and laugh in joy at how playful they were being, amusement from trying to teach me something like Iglishmêk but also because they both knew what their voices were doing to me. A sharp poke on my shoulder made me focus again on the older dwarf.

Bifur was back to pointing at the sky and looking down at me, his words rumbling in my ears and his hands gesturing to me quickly. “He says that that one looks like a raven.”

Did it? I looked at the sky but could not really see any sort of cloud that looked like any kind of bird but I did see one that looked like a hare. I pointed up into the sky and turned to say what I thought to the older dwarf but I stopped, turning instead to look at Bofur. “How do I say that that one looks like a hare?”

Fili watched me with great interest as Bofur taught me the signs for it, explaining what certain signs meant and how it could be carried into other sentences since some were connection terms. I mimicked the gestures as best I could again until I felt ready to tell Bifur and once I did, my eyes lit up when he understood and he looked up into the sky. 

With a grunt given in assent, I watched as he pointed into the sky where I saw my hare and look back at me. Fili came up on the other side of Bofur and looked at me before starting to sign, “That one looks like a cupcake.”

I couldn't help but laugh at how Fili always loved to talk about food but mimicked the gestures anyway until Bifur looked up and pointed to where he saw something that he thought looked like a cupcake. He turned back to me and I watched him sign out the first part of the sentence, surprised when I realized that I was actually beginning to recognize the symbols until the final one that was new to me. 

“What did that last one mean?”

“A type of flower that can be found in Ered Luin. I don't think it has a translatable name other than in Khuzdul.”

Just as I was about to ask what the name was, I found myself tripping over a rock and going to my knee; more surprised than anything else, I huffed out in shock before I felt Fili's hand on my arm help me up gently. “Up we go, Miss Hobbit.”

“See to it that you lot keep your focus on the road ahead!”

Thorin's harsh voice carried easily over us, his tone nearly slapping me on my shoulder and making me gasp. Given that the tone was the more normal one that Thorin used on me since we left Rivendell, I wasn't too shocked by the fact that it was like a harsh clap on the back anymore but as his moods changed, the intensity did so as well. Unfortunately for me, Thorin's moods changed so much in the past few days that the the force of his voice was always a bit of a surprise for me. I just couldn't get used to how much it was all over the place.

“It's alright, Thorin, we'll keep our attention on the road. No harm to be done teaching her.”

Fili placated his Uncle easily enough, his voice a firm grope on my rear that indicated he was far from intimidated by Thorin's harsh tone. Getting back into an easy pace with the others, we continued on with our lesson and our cloud watching. I tried to ignore it, the way that I could still feel the presence of Thorin's glare on us but eventually I found that I couldn't and had to give up on the lessons entirely.

That night when we made camp, Thorin did something that I hadn't expected of him. I should have been amazed that he could still surprise me with such simple gestures but when he called me over for first watch with him, everyone looked at me strangely. 

Away from Fili and Kili and the other members of the group, I didn't know what to exactly expect by taking watch with Thorin but I couldn't help the small seed of hope that maybe Thorin just wanted to spend some alone time with me. While that was enough to turn my mood happy again, it was a quickly fading dream when Thorin sat down near me and stayed silent.

The silence didn't feel like anything remotely close to comforting. It felt oppressive and harsh. 

Unconsciously, I leaned away from him, wanting to go back to the group. 

I suddenly wanted to avoid him desperately.

"Miss Baggins, being so relaxed on the road will do no one any good." His voice felt icy to me even as it trailed down my spine, "Tomorrow you'll walk with me."

I nodded at the request even though it was anything but, trying not to show him how much I was adverse to the idea. I found it ironic how days before I would have almost done anything for him to actively want to walk anywhere with me. 

Now I just wanted him to leave me alone for a bit.

"Keep focused."

I huffed in annoyance, adjusting in my spot on the rock and looking out into the darkness of the night, already bored and already wanting to go to sleep.


	26. Commitments Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo has to deal with a moody Thorin...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, Thorin ended up being a bit more of a jerk than really wanted but when I wrote it, the dialogue just came out. I was like, "Oh shit, Thorin, if that's how you feel, bro!"

The night passed by slowly, spent in silence that was both aggravating and exhausting. 

At times, I wanted to get up and stomp around and scream at the leader of our company and then at other times, I was nudged awake by Thorin, who would then proceed to scowl at me. I smoked entirely too much for my liking that night as well, though I was happy when it relaxed me enough to actually start to enjoy being underneath the stars. 

Being in such darkness without a fire nearby, the sky was beautiful, tiny sparkles of white twinkling up high above us. Such beauty was only diminished by the need for warmth and I went to find my blanket before I was back by Thorin's side and wrapping myself up in a bundle.

“You won't be able to easily draw your sword like that.”

Thorin's voice cut into the night, a harsh clap on my back that made me frown. I wanted to tell him to lighten up and leave me be but just to appease him, I let my arm out and showed him. “There, now I can.”

While it did appease him, it certainly made me feel the cold just as if the blanket weren't there at all.

Eventually I started to doze off, unused to the entire affair of taking watch.

“Miss Baggins,” I jolted awake from the sound of his growled voice on my neck, “I expect you to take my Company's safety seriously.”

I felt my cheeks flush in embarrassment because it wasn't as if I actually _wanted_ to fall asleep! This entire thing was new to me and Thorin knew that. If he wanted to help me, he should have realized that talking to me would have been a preferable alternative than just outright nagging at me like a Dad.

I got up from my spot, his eyes on me the entire time, and I adjusted the blanket so that it was around my shoulders like a shawl and started to pace around the head of the camp. I realized as I did it that it wasn't because I was tired enough to actually need the activity to stay awake anymore but that after digesting Thorin's words, I understood that I was upset. 

Borderline fuming, I paced and felt myself frown because of how he spoke to me about the company, as if I weren't even a part of it! _My_ company! Oh, your company! I didn't realize. Was it your company? I certainly didn't realize that their safety was entirely on my hands only! Oh, yes, thank you for the notice! 

I stopped pacing and sat atop a nearby rock, staring out into the relative darkness. I was starving but I didn't feel like going over to my bag for anything to munch on. I was annoyed but I didn't really want to make a scene. I was tired and I wanted to go to sleep. I wanted to know what time it was and how long the shifts normally lasted. While Thorin probably enjoyed the fact that he never slept, I certainly did not! I was a hobbit! We needed our sleep!

I stayed quiet. 

I didn't notice how little or how much time passed us.

The wind blew around us, silent in the night and cold in my mouth. The snores from the other dwarves could be heard from behind us, unable to be drowned out given the pressure once again on my chest. 

Thorin still sat in his spot as if he hadn't moved an inch all night.

I got up, needing to pace again. 

Bored.

I grumbled and smoked as I paced. 

Thorin's broad back was unchanged, his hair rustling in the wind and relaxed in his spot.

Bored. Bored. Bored.

How did seriously anyone actually really do this?!

I went to Thorin's side and practically collapsed in a pile of fabric next to him, not even caring if I bumped into him awkwardly and pushed him off balance. He looked at me, that familiar annoyed glare in his eyes that did not soften even as I got comfortable next to him. I went to work on cleaning my pipe out, finished smoking for now and not willing to let it sit there in the bowl. Thorin regarded me lightly, watching me and waiting to see if I would try to engage him in any conversation. When I did no such thing (because really what was the point considering that all day he hadn't said anything except to nag?), he grunted in disapproval and made to give me some space. 

“Stay.”

I tried to command, my eyes still on the pipe that I was cleaning out but Thorin didn't pause even a moment before he was relocated a foot from me. I sighed into my hand and felt my fingers in my hair, running along dirty curls before I looked at our leader. 

“Have I done something to offend?”

He looked at me before crossing his arms, “Not taking your duty seriously is usually an offense with any race.”

I bristled at the underhanded dig to my culture that Thorin knew nothing about, “Why did you even put me on watch? You obviously don't want to spend any time with me. You could have just tortured me all tomorrow without adding this.”

“Miss Baggins, if you find my company or my leadership _torturous_ , I dare say you are in the wrong company.”

Thorin's voice while verbally just as calm as it had been before, bristled along my skin as it crawled up my arms like a spider. It was slow as his words and steady but the tone given by the sensation was all wrong. Was this his anger? His annoyance felt nothing like this... 

“Well, while I have enjoyed your company in the past, at the moment I find you to be a little intolerable-”

My eyes stayed on Thorin's form as he turned in his place to look at me finally, “I do believe you have mistaken me for something much akin to yourself. Forgive me for not doting on you like my nephew does.”

My eyes widened in disbelief at his words even as I tried to process the way his voice seemed to now claw into my arms.

“I am not soft nor will I make allowances for you to do as you please. In my Company, you would do well to remember that I lead and that whatever I say must be followed. When I order for you to be vigilant, you will be at the ready. When I say to pay attention, you will pay it. This journey is not a joke and I will _not_ tolerate you treating it as if it were a getaway for whatever your mind fancies.”

I was silent, unable to answer such a thing said to me. His voice nearly dug into my skin and yet I couldn't even register if I winced at the sensation or not. I was just overwhelmed by his words. My hand went up to catch a tear that trailed down my cheek and I looked away, embarrassed and just now realizing that I was beginning to cry. 

“Your shift is over. Go and wake Fili.”

Dismissed. 

His voice said it all, even as it still clawed along my arms. I stood quickly, not wanting to argue with him and not wanting him to see me as I tried to keep it all together. Silently, I went back towards the middle of the pile of dwarves, still feeling that my tears were being held back only by the power of my will alone. I wasn't gentle when I shoved Fili awake, trying my best to hide my face when he startled awake and found me next to him. 

Even while trying to ignore and dodge Fili's more inquisitive nature, I could feel his concern radiating off of him in waves as he took in my appearance. I knew he wanted to comfort me and ask me what happened but I didn't want to be coddled and I didn't want to prove Thorin right about being soft. I didn't want to be doted on. 

“Fili.”

Just a name was all it took for me to understand that it really was Thorin's anger. I winced at the horrible feeling in my skin and pushed Fili away from me, waiting until he got out of his bedroll before I took his place in the warm blankets. He hovered there for a moment, his eyes still worried about what had happened; he wanted to tuck me in, to kiss my forehead, to attend to my softhearted whims as Thorin had said. 

Instead, he went over to his Uncle and took up his place next to the older dwarf.

I slept. 

 

By the time I woke to the bright sun in my eyes, Fili was in a foul mood. He brushed off any conversation that Kili attempted to bring him into and he wouldn't let Thorin speak to him anymore despite the older dwarf glaring at him to manage his temper. The blonde dwarf ate breakfast moodily, a frown in his bowl of cold stew that didn't change for the entire morning routine. 

The camp was tense with the knowledge that something had happened. I could feel them staring at me, whispering voices every so often that I managed to pick out only because of the sensation. 

“Bilbo, what happened last night?”

Kili was beside me, packing up his bedroll while I rolled up Fili's for the elder brother. I didn't want to talk about what Thorin said to me and I certainly didn't want to talk to Kili right then. While all I wanted was to be left alone, he remained firm by my side and didn't budge at all. He stared and waited until finally he took my arm and hauled me away from the camp.

“What happened? What did you do?”

His voice trembled along the skin of my rear but I was indignant by his questions. “What did _I_ do? I didn't do anything! He said – it was his fault!” 

I pointed in the direction of the camp, careful to keep my voice low. In response to my indignation, Kili just chuckled, “Come off, Bilbo. Tell me, what happened.”

“We argued. Nothing more.”

“About?”  
The sensation trembled nervously.

“It doesn't matter. Just –nothing.”

“Was it about his mood lately?”

I looked up at the younger brother, my eyes showing my surprise. I felt his hand on my shoulder, a pat that was meant to be reassuring and yet feeling completely not. “He's just been moody lately, is all. Whatever you two argued about, just apologize for it and be done.”

“But it wasn't my fault! Why would I apologize for him being an ass to me?!”

That surprised Kili, his eyes darting around the camp to see who was listening, which on closer inspection turned out to be quite a few dwarves. My face burned with the humiliation at having to be chided by one of the youngest in the company, the one that was essentially known for being the most reckless. I looked away from his frown even as he leaned in to whisper to me, his eyes serious.

“Miss Bilbo, fighting with Thorin will be the worst thing you can do for yourself here. Regardless of who is responsible for whatever argument you had, just apologize.”

I was upset. I knew I shouldn't have pushed Kili away but I was tired and I was not about to put up with dwarves being stubborn and just walking all over me just because I was a Hobbit. I brushed off Kili's hand, not even wanting him to touch me and crossed my arms, unwilling to concede.

We stared at each other, at an impasse.

“Kili! Enough with the chatter, we're moving out! Miss Baggins, you're with me.”

 

The group was tense the entire day. All throughout the day, they were on edge as we traveled but unlike before, it was not the silence of the environment that made them quiet. Thorin practically bristled in irritation, displeasure written so clearly across his face even as I kept pace with him. We did not speak to each other, knowing that the first word spoken would lead to an all out argument; neither of us were willing to quite embarrass ourselves in front of the company just yet, it seemed.

Just as he was earlier, Fili was still in a horrid mood and stayed silent from where he walked next to Kili. 

When we stopped for a late lunch, one look from Thorin was enough of a command to say that it was alright to leave his side, and I practically skipped all the way over to Fili such was my relief. He was still in a mood, peeling an orange and throwing the skin peels into a nearby bush but as soon as he saw me, he looked curious. His eyebrow rose, a glance at Thorin. Next to him, Kili watched us, his eyes wary. I waved off the concern and smiled weakly at the blonde dwarf, earning a weak grin in return. Once he was finished with peeling the orange, he pulled it cleanly in two and gave me one of the halves.

I didn't really want to sit with the brothers since Kili was still in his own mood from earlier but as soon as I sat down next to Bofur and Bifur, I felt the air around me stiffen in apprehension. From my other side, Dori made sure to keep his attention on Ori and Nori, both of whom stayed quiet. Bofur very intently smoked his pipe and Bombur really just wasn't trying hard enough to look interested in the direction of his own shoes. His eyes kept darting between the brothers, Thorin, and myself. 

Bifur looked at me, his eyes soft and kind, and he tried to sign to me in Iglishmêk something that I couldn't understand. Knowing that to be the case, I watched him as he rounded on his younger cousin and smacked him upside the head, pointing towards me, himself, and then Bofur. He signed something down low where others could not see but Bofur just shook his head and answered back in the same manner.

Bofur glanced at Thorin and signed again something for his brother before smiling weakly at me. “I'll teach you some more later when the mood is better.”

Bifur stayed quiet after that, a hand on my shoulder just to show that he wanted me nearby. I kept my head down, slowly eating my half of the orange and tried not to think of the fact that everyone seemed to not want to talk to me as long as Thorin was upset at me.

 

As the group continued on through the terrain, grassy fields turning into rock beds again, I stayed silent next to Thorin. Spared glances back at the company did nothing but make me fume. My mood darkened after lunch due to the fact that I felt willing to give into Kili's advice if it would only make Thorin soften towards me and make the company comfortable talking to me again. 

I cursed at myself because of how stupid I had been. 

While spending time with the Durins had been wonderful in Rivendell, unknowingly, I had sectioned myself off from the other dwarves of the company. Now I felt as if I were only an extension of the three, only able to be acknowledged when they were pleased enough with me. I bristled at the sentiment, unhappy that through my own machinations I brought all this on myself. Too late I had tried to get close with the other dwarves and too late had I earned anything from them. 

Sure, they were content to entertain me when Thorin and the brothers were well enough but the second one of them turned on me, I was suddenly off limits? Suddenly, I was pariah? I hated feeling the way I did. I kept silent because I knew I would start yelling if anyone said anything to me. 

I tripped on some rogue rock, stumbling forward before I was caught by Thorin's hand on my arm. Steady and strong, he pulled me up but only said to keep my eyes focused on the way ahead before continuing on. 

 

Onward, we walked. Onward, I had grown irritated. I was tired and my feet hurt. I wished for the ponies wherever they were. I wished for the chance to smack Thorin upside the head just as easily as Bifur had done to Bofur. I looked back towards the group who seemed to finally break the tension among themselves and engage in quiet conversations. 

“Look forward, Miss Baggins.”

I sighed because of Thorin being so oppressive.

I caved.

“I'm sorry for earlier. I didn't mean what I said.”

I very much did mean what I said because Thorin Oaken-jerk-face was being an intolerable prat and I really didn't want anything at all to do with any of it. I wanted the peace to return. I wanted Thorin to just call all of this off so that the others would talk to me again...

I wanted to go back home to the Shire if I knew that this would be the rest of the journey. If Thorin and Balin were concerned over making it to the Lonely Mountain by the start of winter then I would have many more months of this unendurable nonsense before me. 

Thorin's hard gaze looked down at me, those blue eyes taking in what my body was telling him. I tried to smile at him to show that I was sincere but I was sure that my eyes gave my thoughts away. I had never been good at fibbing, even for the greater good. Many a time my Mum and Dad would catch me in a white lie just by the way that I couldn't keep my mouth from curling up into a smile.

“Apparently Hobbits lack sincerity as well. _Watch_ your step.”

I watched my step, walking right over the rock.

Inside, I fumed at how awful and intolerable Thorin was being. I wanted to scratch his eyes out! How did such a dwarf really manage to chastise me for something _HE_ had done and then proceed to warn me _and_ reprimand me all within the same sentence? How did he do that? I wanted to throw my hands up in defeat because Thorin was just too much!

“Follow behind me.”

I followed behind him, the path narrowing. 

“Stay on your guard. You never know what can happen on the mountain side.”

I wanted to scratch his fucking eyes out.

We walked along the narrow ledge for about ten minutes until it widened again and he turned to me, “Go on ahead.”

His voice was curt, still clawing into my arms, and I pushed past him so that I could get away from him. He really was torturing me and at this point, I wasn't even sure if he was doing it to be cheeky or just because he didn't realize he was being an utter bastard. 

I waited for him since he had said to walk with him all day, allowing the other dwarves to pass me at some point but when he came back to my side, he looked down at me in irritation. “I sent you to stay up ahead, Miss Baggins.”

My fists clenched because I was trying to suppress the urge to push Thorin off the cliff side. He was lucky that I was a nice, soft little hobbit or else he would have been on the edge of the cliff begging the fair Lady Bilbo to rescue him and save him for a horrible plunge into jerk-face land.

“Pay attention, Miss Baggins.”

Unclench, clench the fists. Just keep doing that instead of pushing him.

 

Later that night at camp, I was exhausted by just how upset I had been all day. It was almost impossible to discern between my sore feet, my aching calves, and the pounding headache behind my eyes just what was worse. Thorin had been a pain the entire rest of the day even when he was silent. The journey had been rougher when we started to trudge our way upwards again. 

Everyone was moody at camp still and I was doing my best to keep out of the fray just as long as it would help me relax. When the food was finally ready to be eaten (yet another cold stew) I ate next to the brothers, spooning and sloshing around strange bits of food that I couldn't help but barely even want to eat. Fili was a much needed breath of fresh air when his spoon went into my bowl and he slopped it messily into his mouth, “Well, if you're not going to eat it.”

Despite the heavy mood of the entire day and the camp, Fili and I found ourselves giggling while we fought for who would get my bowl of stew. Kili looked at us and eventually conceded to let go of his own apprehension, taking a quick bet of who would win. 

Sadly, I ended up losing the rights to my own bowl of food. 

“Come on, open up nice and wiiiiiiiiide.”

Fili's voice pinched at me playfully and I couldn't help but flush with how embarrassing the situation now was. Having actually stolen my bowl of food from me, he was alternating between feeding himself small bites and myself, though if I wanted them I would need to let him dote on me. “You need to keep your strength up.”

“Stop!” I laughed at the ticklish feeling under my skirts and tried to take my bowl back but Fili just moved away, using Kili at one point to keep me back. Even with the shadow of Thorin's nasty temper in the air, the other dwarves began to root for whomever they wanted to win.

I was made to concede after Kili was splashed with a good portion of the stew and Dwalin telling us not to waste food. “Come on.” 

“Stop!”

“Open up...?” 

I smirked even as I leaned forward to accept a bite of the cold stew, noting pleasantly that it tasted much better if only because Fili was making such an effort to make me happy. If doting really did always feel this way, I wasn't exactly sure why I didn't want to always be the recipient of Fili's undivided attention.

Later on after dinner when the camp was engaged in a variety of activities amongst themselves, Fili leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear something that made his voice curl along my bottom seductively, “You did well today, against his temper, I mean.”

I rolled my eyes playfully at such a compliment. “Yeah, right.”

“No, really. I mean it. You didn't let him really goad you...Our Ma knows only too well how much his temper made us get into fights with him.”

Fili was leaned in close to me, his breath a whisper against my face and his voice a trail underneath my skirts. He was serious but he was being warm and kind. It was the combination that I loved the most about him. I leaned in just so that I could smell his scent from where it was strongest in the crook of his neck. He smiled at me, his hand coming up to comb into my hair, fingering the locks before he looked at me. 

“Can I ask why his temper has been so bad lately?”

Fili didn't want to answer that. I knew immediately from the way his blue eyes shut off from me and how his hand stilled in my hair. He moved closer, raising up so that he could kiss my forehead. Before his lips could connect though, I moved away from him. “Stop trying to do that. I feel like whenever you three try to kiss my forehead, you just want to placate me instead of actually talk.” 

I leaned forward so that I could wrap my arms around my knees, “I can't actually stand how little I know about you three. How I'm always wondering how much I can actually ask you. I hate feeling like I always have to be in the dark to be with any of you.”

I didn't want to ruin the good mood that Fili specifically cultivated for me but I couldn't help but be the whiny kid that I was made to feel like I was all day. Fili seemed to understand that this was what he would get instead of me attempting an all out argument with Thorin; his expression softened at once before he shifted closer and wrapped his arm around my waist.

“I'm sorry, I didn't realize. It is just something we have always done in our family. The kisses really are meant to comfort, not keep you from anything.” His voice was soft in my ear and softer still on my behind. I could feel his affection and love for me with each breath he took.

“Honestly, we keep some things from you because we love you.”

It was my bad mood. It was the child in me. It was the spurned woman who was tired of being treated like she were a burden. Whatever it was, it was the thing that made my thoughts go to Kili and replay our earlier conversation about how I was essentially in the wrong and would need to apologize. They went next to Thorin and what he said to me during our watch and throughout the day.

“You're the only one who loves me here, Fili.” 

Just as I stood up to end this depressing conversation and find a moment for myself or even try to really talk to Thorin, Fili's hand gripped my arm tightly and didn't let me go. He pulled me back to him even as he stood in his spot so that I would be forced to look at him. He stopped only for a moment, looking around the camp and deciding something. He pulled me away so that we could have a moment of privacy. 

Once we were alone, he turned back towards me, keeping his grip on my forearms steady and firm.

“How can you say such a thing, Bilbo? Thorin and Kili both love you, I swear to that. I know sometimes it's hard to see because of tempers but do not doubt that we do love you in our own ways.”

I felt a lump in my throat from Fili's confession, the possessive curl of sensation against my bottom being all I needed to know that he told the truth. It was what he believed and what he would fight defending no matter how many times I tried to say it wasn't true.

“And you?”

He didn't skip a beat, “I love you as well. I am not one to keep myself from experiencing the happiness of love, even on such a dangerous quest as this.”

Fili's arms went tight around my body even as he squeezed me harder and buried his face into my curly hair. Still, his voice squeezed me possessively. I felt my heart swell with how much he truly felt for me despite how little time we had spent together. 

Courtships in the Shire could last for years with rare ones being a few months young. Such things just weren't done so quickly. Love was something that I was taught by my Dad to be cultivated like the fields of Arda that we planted our crops in. 

_'Patience and love would grow a better, fiercer yield'_ , he used to say, a true Baggins.  
 _'Quick like a smack to a misbehaving brat, I stole your Pa because I knew I never wanted to be without him!'_ , my Mum used to say, who was always a Took despite having a Baggins as a last name.

As their daughter, where was I allowed to be? This was something new for me and never before had I ever wanted to admit that maybe I was not such a proper Baggins all along.

“I love you, too.”

Even as I returned the kiss given by the elder dwarf brother, I wanted to hold Fili tight because of how scared such an open confession made me. It was out in the open now. I was vulnerable and now I would be worried forevermore about everything that Fili did. Our quest was indeed dangerous and to think of a day -even a moment- without Fili was what I would consider true torture. I would love to listen to Thorin nag at me all day if it meant that I could stay with him.

“Come on, before we make Uncle Grumpy come look for us.”

Fili led me back to the camp where we saw that some of the dwarves were beginning to unroll their bedrolls for bedtime. Kili was already in the motion of doing our bedrolls, looking up when he noticed us near and smiling. “Everything alright?”

A quick brush of his voice against my bottom and I grinned at him, “Of course!”

“Miss Hobbit, want to do me a favor?” Fili's voice tickled at me and I smiled up at him, love struck and feeling foolish. I nodded and he directed me to have a seat on the middle bedroll. Propping up his pack underneath him, Fili took a seat himself and got comfortable. “Hand me your comb.”

Not giving his request much thought, I ruffled around inside my bag until I found my comb and held it for him to take. Kili watched us intently, his eyes darkened with apprehension again. He was curious, wary, and definitely intrigued. Fili was gentle as he leaned my head back, experienced fingers pulling the comb through my curly hair back and away from my forehead. This he did in easy strokes, gliding the teeth against my scalp pleasantly until I was thoroughly relaxed and putty in his hands.

“Lean your head back some more.”

Again, that possessive voice. 

I closed my eyes when I felt those thick fingers in my hair, sectioning out strands before I felt one of his hands leave my hair and disappear for a moment.

“Hold this for me.”

I opened up my hand to accept whatever it was, opening my eyes just as he deposited a silver hair clasp in my palm. Immediately, I recognized it as the smaller ornament that held together his back braid. 

“What are you doing?”

I smiled up at him, not sure what this new found grooming really meant. Fili just chuckled at my question, pulling my head back into place so that he could begin his work. I closed my eyes again, since there was really nothing to see anyway. 

"Braiding? You're sure?"

Kili's voice in the darkness, a nervous tremble on my bottom that was overridden quickly by Fili's pinch on the other butt cheek. 

"Yep, you know I've been planning which would look best since before we left Rivendell."

Happy that all Fili was doing was braiding my hair, I played with the silver hair clasp between my fingers, content to let myself bask in the soothing press of fingers in my hair smoothing out the strands from my scalp. Beginning with practiced ease, he weaved the strands of hair tightly, questioning every so often if he was pulling too hard.

He made quick work of the braid, finishing it behind my ear so that the end was tucked out of sight, stopping only to hold out his hand for the hair clasp. Once it was hooked into my hair, I felt the press of his knuckles down my cheek and opened my eyes. 

Kili hadn't said a word since Fili started and now more than before, he looked worried. A quick glance at Thorin also did not bode well since his anger seemed to have boiled up again. 

Had something happened while I was out of it?

Fili's good mood didn't allow me even a moment to think about what had gotten back up Thorin's butt, standing up and leaning back over for an apple in his bag and one of his knives. He ushered both Kili and I over, happy to share his treat. The two of us were content to accept whatever he offered us, an easy comfort to be found whenever Fili was joyous and not to be challenged. 

I found myself remembering him as the King of our Bedroom. 

“Fili, a word.”

Thorin's voice made me wince in pain, raking so hard against my arms that I squirmed in discomfort. Barely finished with the apple, Fili looked up at his glaring Uncle, a heavy sigh coming from his lips before he finished off the apple himself, “I'm surprised you even let me get through my apple.” 

“Now.”

“It's not up for discussion. I made my choice and I'm not willing to reconsider.”

Fili's voice started to prickle against my rear unpleasantly. He was starting to become angry. I realized all too late that something was happening here. Something had happened. 

“Now!” 

Thorin was mad. Fili was equally as mad.

I watched as the two of them left our camp, hovering close enough that they wouldn't be in danger but not too close as to be overheard. Regardless, whatever they said I didn't understand anyway because it was completely in Khuzdul, guttural and garbled, and sounding mean and upset.

Their voices at times forgot themselves, growing louder until words could be overheard clearly, raking sensations against my skin. A look at Kili's face showed me just how bad the argument was. Quickly they disappeared back into whispers, not wanting to be overheard again.

“I've never heard them argue before.”

I was worried now that something really serious had happened when I was unaware. Maybe the braiding meant something that made Thorin mad?

"They don't do it often."

"Is it about me?"

Kili, who hadn't moved closer to me since Fili left suddenly looked at me and attempted a small comforting smile before he thought better of it. Instead, he shifted over where Fili had been and pulled me close, raising his hand so that he could run his fingers over the braid. 

"Braids are..." He stopped, his words trailing off as he saw Fili rush out of the darkness and back over to the camp. He did not approach Kili and I, choosing to go straight over to where Dwalin sat on watch, his steps angry and forceful. 

I had never seen him look so upset.

A moment later, Thorin was back in the camp, barking at everyone to sleep before he headed over to Balin.

"Its meaning is personal... something he should tell you himself... If I want to braid your hair, I'll tell you why I wish to then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks, I know that in some fanfics in this fandom, braids mean marriage... but yea, no. For this story, they are more of a committed sort of relationship thing.


	27. Missing Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili and Bilbo do some emotional bonding...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off: 
> 
> I'm unfortunately sick. :/   
> Hopefully that doesn't affect my progress but yeah, as long as I have cold medicine in me, I find that I'm a little too dazed to write.
> 
> Second off: 
> 
> This chapter didn't turn out at all like I wanted. I originally had planned this to be travelling and a few other things (that were put into the next chapter) but this one turned out like this.  
> I left it only because it was good emotional progress.

By the following night, tension in the camp had grown much worse. 

Though initially he had been content to be by our side while we slept, sometime after the first light came over the camp, Kili woke and took his bedroll over to Thorin, where he remained until the camp woke. The activity of the entire affair woke me from my own restful slumber and I looked up just in time to see Kili moving over to Thorin's side. They didn't sleep close enough for me to consider it an intimate gesture but for Kili to break away from our pile was enough for me to think of it as a bad sign. 

On my front, Fili still slept unaware of what happened and because worry gnawed at me like a dog would a bone, I gently woke him and waited until his bleary eyes did their best to focus on me. 

“What's wrong?”

His voice was lethargic on my backside, barely even attempting before it vanished entirely. I moved closer out of habit and because without Kili at my back, the chill of the night was starting to creep in.

“Kili's gone.”

Fili blinked awake even more from my words and adjusted so that he could look behind me; he frowned at the missing presence and lifted his head so that he could look over to the other side of camp where he last saw Thorin. From my own spot, there was nothing really telling about where Kili now slept but Fili made a noise of disbelief before he settled back down. 

“Come on, switch with me so the wind isn't at your back.”

We adjusted in our bedrolls, bodies brushing up against one another until I was settled where Fili previously slept. He opened his fur lined jacket and ushered me inside, pulling our blankets over us both so that we shared more of our body warmth than before. Now impossibly close, Fili laid back down with a contented sigh, his fingers offhandedly stroking along the ridges of the braid that held despite the long day of travel we had earlier.

“Warm?”

I grinned at the feel of his possessive voice, “Very.”

We were only silent for a few minutes before the worry came to mind again and I twisted my fingers around one of Fili's braids. “Is Kili mad about something?”

“He's being insecure, is all. Never you mind.”

“...and Thorin? The two of you fighting; should I not mind that too?”

Fili looked at me seriously before he sighed, moving to kiss my forehead only to stop himself as he remembered my words from last night.

“He's just being overprotective.”

“He _is_ your Uncle.”

Fili grinned, then shook his head, “He's being protective of us both,” He paused, a nervous glance in the direction of the two Durin's, “Thorin... he's not all that he appears to be. He tries so hard to make us believe that he can take down any enemy by himself. That he's content with that solitary life. Kili and I, we can't leave him to that fate. He pushed me yesterday but I know he's scared he went too far.”

“Thorin scared? I hardly believe that.”

Fili looked at me then, quite serious even as his fingers stayed on the braid, “Bilbo, Thorin _is_ afraid. The bravest and greatest of men and dwarf can be afraid and yet find their courage in the smallest of things.”

There was something profound in those words that Fili spoke, something so very sincere that I believed in them wholeheartedly.

In a way, it reminded me of how we Hobbits always tried to find the simplest of things to keep us happy. How we believed in the scent of fresh bread, and baked treats instead of the misery of one's grief from a lost loved one. So many times I had been sad after my Mum passed and Dad came to my bedroom with a fresh plate of cookies that seemed to keep away all the sadness of the world.

I snuggled against Fili's strong chest, wishing to trust in his words that he spoke so confidently. I hoped by the time the morning truly came that his words would help me find the patience that I needed to deal with Thorin, and help me become wiser in the face of the newfound knowledge given to me.

Fili's hand went away from the braid he put in my hair and to my cheek, tilting my face up so that he could look at me, his eyes a serious gaze into my own, “One day, I hope that you'll find your courage with us too. Strength to stand alone on your own two feet so that when we worry, we do so only out of love and not fear.”

Fili's kiss made me melt into his arms and how I wished we could have embraced each other more intimately underneath the blankets, however, given that we were out in the open it was only a nice thought. 

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful image to fall asleep to. 

That morning in the camp everything was normal by the recent standards of what was normal in our company. The mood was still as tense as ever and now it seemed Kili himself was undecided about who was right in this entire mess. Despite Fili trying to engage him back over to us, he remained by Thorin's side where he kept himself busy grooming his Uncle like some sort of strange animal custom. As much as I wanted to sort of laugh at the image of Kili trying to work some semblance of control back to Thorin's wild mane, I knew that there was something important being done in front of me. 

I remembered the fact that Thorin hadn't allowed me to braid his hair back in Rivendell, thinking it to be him being picky. Now with Kili of all people doing it, I knew that not to be the case. Kili was terrible at braiding if his attempts to help Fili were anything to go by. Watching the two darker haired dwarves groom one another made me want to ask Fili about braiding and why he felt the need to put the one in my hair.

Accepting the bowl of food from the messy haired Bofur, I found myself staring at the two dwarves, watching them as they whispered closely with one another, almost willing my large hobbit ears to hear their conversation, even if it meant being improper and eavesdropping. I was rather deliberately staring, food quite honestly forgotten, as Thorin would nod or shake his head in Kili's direction in reply to whatever was said. 

When Fili came over a moment later to sit with me and eat, he turned a curious eye on me before following my line of sight. He could no more hear them than I could but whatever the two spoke about, Fili didn't care too much as he didn't move or show concern over it other than a casual shrug. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to interrupt them.

Alas, it seemed that he didn't even want me to pry into it, for as soon as he saw me finish my food, he was directing me over closer and holding out something for me to take.

“Braid my hair for me. I know you can do it.”

Immediately, I was reluctant considering how quickly Thorin jumped on Fili two days previous over braiding my hair. If my suspicions were true as well about it being more important than just a routine grooming idea, then it would definitely be something to be murmured about in the camp if I braided Fili's hair. What was the blonde dwarf up to? 

“Please, Miss Hobbit? Do you want me to look disheveled?”

His voice pinched at my behind playfully and seductively all at once and I knew that he was being cheeky and possessive in spite of Thorin's rather interesting temper. Not wanting him to whine to me though, I grabbed the comb from him and stood up behind him since there was nothing for me to sit on that would give me the height advantage that I needed to properly braid his thick golden mane of hair. 

Already it was knotted up something awful, the braids barely coming undone even after I removed the silver beads and clasp and put them in Fili's offered palm. As I worked to undo the braids, trying my best to be gentle to the dwarf below me, I noticed eyes on me and sparing a quick glance up, I was not surprised to see a collection of rather curious eyes. 

From across the camp, Thorin's stared at me before looking away, strangely enough not looking so upset anymore. 

When finally all of Fili's braids were undone, I started the work of combing out the many knots that formed since setting out from Rivendell. A few paces from us, Bifur expertly braided Bofur's hair back into the usual style. 

“Honestly, my Mum would have fun for days with your hair. So long, thick and full-”

“You'll make me blush, Miss Hobbit.”

“Oh, stop it, you.”

I tugged gently at the locks, earning a chuckle from him, “No, I'm serious. It is a big compliment for one's hair to be thick and long. Would your Mum like my mustache as well?”

“I think she would have wanted to shave it off, actually.” 

I felt Fili shiver at that. So shaving one's facial hair was a bad thing? 

“Your Ma sounds fierce.”

I nodded, not even really registering that he wouldn't be able to see my expression. It wasn't lost on me though how easily we had started to talk about my Mum. It was interesting considering that I had not spoken of her the entire trip and just out of no where, there I went and mentioned her. Now Fili was talking about her as if he could meet her and I found that my heart started to hammer in my chest at just that mental image.

“Yeah, she was fierce.”

Fili opened his eyes, careful not to move from where I was starting to braid his hair back into the normal style. It wouldn't be as good as it normally looked but I was at least a better braider than Kili was.

“I'm sorry about your Ma.”

I shook off the thought that he unwittingly brought up in me, trying my best to smile happily at the fact that we were talking about something so very personal to me. I was happy to talk about my Mum to one I considered a lover and I almost felt bad that I hadn't mentioned her more. 

“She would have liked you. Would have tried to feed you and Kili until you were two times your normal sizes.”

Fili laughed at that, his voice pinching at me like it normally did, “Ha! A dwarf friend, indeed.”

“She would have liked Thorin too. Dark, mysterious type most likely hiding a wounded heart underneath a broody exterior.”

I had been joking, hardly even believing the words I spoke so casually but when I felt Fili tense underneath my fingers, I paused and looked down at him in concern. He was still, his eyes open but not even really seeing anything that he was staring at. Finally, after a long minute, he turned his blue eyes up at me.

“If your Ma was anything like you, then he would have liked her too.”

It was the casualness of his words, the utter unfaltering ease with which he spoke them and believed in them.

Thorin would have liked my Mum. Thorin would have liked her because she would have been like _me_. 

I started to cry because I missed her terribly all of a sudden and I was no where even close to where I could see some of her mementos like I was apt to do when I missed her most. I was away from home, away from hobbits who so easily loved me and treated me with respect because I was respectable and proper. I missed home desperately.

Quicker than I could register, Fili was pulling me down and holding me close with a hand cupped to the back of my head. He didn't need to say anything because he understood what set me off but I tried to pull myself together just because I didn't want to be seen crying about something so silly. My parents had been long dead by the time this quest started and feeling homesick for the Shire was not going to make my life any easier either. 

“Anything wrong?”

Thorin's voice trembled down my spine as it always did when he was nervous around me. My first thought was how he had crossed the camp so quickly? 

I tried to bottle up my crying long enough to try and save face, even as Fili's hand pulled me closer so that I could hide.

“Yeah, just a little homesick, is all.”

“Hm... well-”

“Your hair looks terrible. Sit down so I can fix it, Uncle.”

By the time I opened my eyes, sniffled up the last of my tears, and looked up, Thorin had grumbled something and sat down in front of his oldest nephew. I was instantly made envious of how easily Fili could win someone over to his side when it came time to reconcile arguments. How easily Thorin and I bickered silently at each other the entire time since we left Rivendell and how fiercely Fili and Thorin fought the other day. Now here was Thorin being doted on by both his nephews in one morning. 

I was envious of how well Fili knew Thorin.

“Miss Hobbit? If you'll continue? I don't want to look unkempt.”

Fili turned that smile back onto me and I chuckled because of how much Fili knew me. I shook the last of my sadness off and stood, eager to continue braiding Fili's hair. 

As I went back to the task that Fili asked of me, I found my eyes every so often finding Thorin, who sat quietly with his eyes closed as Fili expertly undid the messy braids that Kili weaved and used his comb to straighten out the mess that was still Thorin's hair. 

I smiled because yes, my Mom would have liked Thorin, if only because his hair was as wild as her's.


	28. The Calm Before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and Company are almost through the worst of the Misty Mountains... or, are they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Jewelabelle for pointing out that Bifur and Bofur were actually cousins! It was a fact I quite didn't realize!
> 
> I'll go back and edit what I can for consistency but from now on, the mistake has been fixed.

There was something about being outdoors that was still refreshing even while up so high and surrounded by the cold wind that gusted past us at the most interesting of times. Between skirts having to be managed every so often and Fili trying to cop a feel, I was actually happy to note that I was having a pretty good day. While we didn't talk much after our morning, Fili teased me along the trek and just in general fawned over me whenever we took a moment to break. Even if we didn't really talk much considering that the climb up was strenuous and it would put us both out of breath, I felt that his want to be close to me was what he wanted most.

Throughout the day after we started again on our long journey up the steep mountains, I tried to ask Fili about the matter of the braiding and why it was so important but every time I tried to do so, he would just give me the simplest of answers that didn't even really answer anything. 

Up and up we went, the landscape morphing slowly from the rocky beds back to fields of tall grass that tickled against the calves of my legs. While the mountains were something to be anxious about in terms of their ever constant sense of danger, there was a beauty there that was hard to deny. In the distance, mountain peaks loomed that I knew by the late afternoon we would be scaling along, one step at a time. 

As we pressed on through the tall grass fields, I figured that there was something to be said about how far these dwarves were willing to travel to recapture their home. At the moment though, I was a bit hard pressed to find anything amazing about it. It was becoming quite cold and it was rather uncomfortable.

Every minute we traveled upwards, it grew colder and every moment, I wished for some heavier jacket to stave off the bitter chill that I hadn't exactly planned for. Though the silence of the adventure kept most of the dwarves quiet, there were still some conversations to be had as we walked. Single file along the paths, we followed Thorin and every so often, I would get the courage I needed to ask Fili again about the braiding. 

I also wanted to know more about why Kili was still avoiding us, going out of his way to stay close to Thorin, who seemed to have calmed down a little since Fili's grooming. 

“Why did you braid my hair?”

I asked when we had finally settled in for a lunch. Fili was somewhat distracted by that time, absentmindedly biting into one of his beloved apples, which I learned was his favorite food, before he turned his eyes back to me. 

“Already told you: because I love you.”

I rolled my eyes while my lips turned up into a small smile, happy that he said such a thing so casually but also a bit annoyed that he answered my question so simply. After a whole morning of such answers, with very little explanation, I had to concede that the dwarves were masters at keeping their secrets. Or just masters at teasing hobbits.

“What do braids mean for dwarves?”

I tried again, reaching for his apple so that he would look at me for once since the conversation started and not stare at his brother, who still looked like he was moping about moodily.

“I already told you that too: that we love you.”

His answers were quick, his attention divided between his brother and I but his words curled along my skin playfully. I tried again.

“Is it really alright for me to braid your hair?”

“Of course it is. You love me, right?”

“You are impossible!”

I laughed at how evasive and casual Fili was being, wanting to throw the apple straight at his head. A moment later, I tried a question that was harder and would hopefully provide more of an answer to the dilemma that I found myself wondering about.

“Would Thorin or Kili let me braid their hair?”

I already knew the answer to that question in particular but after having seen both Fili and Kili braid their Uncle's hair and think nothing of it, I wondered what it meant that they were allowed to do it and not I. Was it a family thing? No, it couldn't have been since I was sure that I had seen Dwalin do it once at the very beginning of the adventure. 

Fili grinned at me, “Ah, now that is a bit more complicated!”

I waited eagerly for him to expand on his line of thought about the braiding but not even a moment later, he was standing up, pointing over the way and waiting until I was thoroughly distracted before he snatched the apple back from my hands and laughed. 

“Bilbo, I'm going to make amends with my brother. Don't get into too much trouble.”

Warmed over by how he fawned over me for two days and the way his voice played along my skin seductively, I was not at all upset by the fact that he was leaving me to my own devices for however long it took to make amends with Kili. Not that I knew that he even needed to make amends with the younger brother. 

Then again, I hadn't even known that they were fighting. _Were_ they even fighting? 

Fili was lucky that I had already had an impossibly decent morning with him and Thorin or else I wouldn't have so easily waved him off with a slight chuckle and a good natured, “Good luck!”

 

When we finally began our trek again, I ended up walking in front of Bifur and behind Bofur, every so often looking up to where the brothers were. They walked closely one after another, close enough so that they could talk freely and also close enough that they wouldn't be easily overheard if they whispered. Whatever it was that they talked about felt important when I earlier watched Fili drag Kili away from Thorin, a light protest being pulled from the younger brother. Thorin obviously had been tired of dealing with Kili because it was amusing to see that he was waved off in much the same way that I waved Fili of.

As we traveled though, there was something about Kili's stiffness that made me wonder if Fili's presence was wanted. He didn't really look to want to talk to his brother, casting nervous glances around the company but if it were because of the nature of their relationship or just because he didn't want to talk, I wouldn't have known. Things like that weren't talked over with me and if I asked Thorin right now, he would probably just grunt at me and leave it at that.

I sighed at the realization that whom I had decided to take as lovers used grunts as our most basic form of communication. My Mum really would have been over the moon about such a thing, finding that the hardest love proved to be the best one. Never mind that not even the most difficult of Hobbits communicated in a manner similar to animals. 

Maybe when Thorin calmed down, I would tell him about how my parents met? Something told me he would have liked to hear about my wild Mum.

I shivered slightly at the feel of cold against my feet, stopping in my place from the shock. When I looked down and saw the bright sight of glaringly white snow, I almost had to hold myself back from giving a loud cheer. I loved snow. It was really beautiful and to see so much of it around was amazing. A quick look around and it seemed that the rest of the company enjoyed the sight of it as well.

When I caught the sight of the brothers up ahead of me, I was happy to see that finally, the two were laughing and making jokes like normal. It seemed the snow was good for everyone. Or maybe it was just convenient timing?

Before I lagged too far behind, I jogged back up into the place I had taken before I stopped and reached down to roll a clump of snow into a ball. 

Now it was time to show the dwarves just what we hobbits were fantastic at! 

A great whooping howl of laughter from Bifur and I ruined any sense of quiet stoicism in the company after I launched a snowball at the back of Bofur's head. With a giant _splat_ on the back of his hat, the snowball landed so perfectly where I intended it and he turned around in shock, wondering what had exactly happened. 

The laughter of Bifur was sharp in my ears and his voice triggered my own bout of laughter, a sharp tickling sensation rushing under my armpits that literally made me shriek away from the line of dwarves. I caught myself on his arm, still laughing with him when we both heard Thorin's voice call out from the front with a harsh slap on my back, “ Enough horsing around back there!!”

Bifur and I straightened back up instantly, still giggling a little at each other before we carried on again behind Bofur. After a minute, Bifur looked at me and signed with his hands something that I didn't understand; just as he had done before, he caught Bofur by the back of the head with a quick smack and had him pay us enough attention to tell us what Bifur said.

“He said that it was a great shot.”

Bofur chuckled out, eyeing me with a look that promised some sort of pay back. If his voice hadn't reduced me down to laughter again from the tickle of my feet, I would have been worried about it. I couldn't even think about anything at all after that because Bofur started to make random noises, loud enough that I could hear and certainly sharp enough that my feet tickled. 

Once again, I was clutching Bifur's arm as he practically dragged me up the mountain, I being quite unable to carry myself up on my own two feet that tickled me relentlessly. 

“Stop! Bofur!”

“I said enough back there!!”

Again, all of us straightened up, a snigger coming from my lips when I saw how Fili and Kili were trying to suppress their own laughter...

 

When we stopped for a break sometime in the late afternoon, high atop a mountain peak that was covered with snow that even Ori took to playing with, I was happy to see that Fili and Kili were both back to their usual ways. Every so often, the elder brother waved to me to let me know that he still thought of me and I waved back happy that he thought it enough to actually acknowledge me. 

Even when Kili looked over and waved a small wave at me, I grinned back widely and blew him a kiss that he chuckled at before going back to the conversation with his brother. Finally, I was in a good mood again and finally the company really seemed to lighten back up. Everyone was having a good time while they rested, talking joyfully or playing in the snow while they could. 

Bofur throwing a snow ball at me pulled me from my quick snack and with a wet smack on the side of my face, I was shocked into action. With a sly smirk on my face, I stood from my spot and popped the piece of bread in my mouth only long enough to roll a ball of snow and chuck it back at the friendly dwarf. Unfortunately for his older cousin, Bofur used Bifur as a shield and what should have landed in Bofur's side ended up finding its home with Bifur. It landed with painful accuracy right in his big nose and within the second, I was running away in terror from him charging at me with the intentions to throw another snowball at me.

“Get him, Bilbo!” 

I squeaked at the sound of Kili's voice cheering me on with a naughty pinch, bending down over for another snowball that I rolled up and tossed at Bifur and promptly dodged the one coming at me. By then, I was quite ganged up on, having to fend off both Bifur and Bofur. Ori eventually joined my team and the two of us made quite the compatible team considering that we both were quite good at the use of snow as projectiles.

I wanted to call Fili and Kili over to join us but for once,I was happy that I was getting along with the other dwarves without them or Thorin also involved. I was content with the fact that they didn't need to be playing for the game to be enjoyed by either myself or the other members of the company.

Snowballs being thrown left and right, over our heads and just narrowly avoiding each other, the match was quite extraordinarily the most fun I had since beginning this adventure months ago. My hands were red from having to roll up snowballs without the proper wear for it and my clothes were getting soaked with every snowball that I failed to miss. 

I found that Bifur was actually really quite good at the game, giving me a run for my money more than once and eventually, Ori gave up on the idea of teams and just started to randomly throw the cold little balls at any one of us foolish enough to get close. 

Eventually after a very long, intense match between the four of us (and when Ori decided to honor that he was in a team), it was decided that Ori and I were just too much for the older cousins. Gloin was happy to announce the winners after carefully inspecting each of us for just how soaked our clothes were from the melted snow and how red our hands had become. Once it was announced to the company as a whole, Ori and I bounced around hand in hand, both of us sure that the other probably hadn't won much of anything in our lives.

When I finally pulled away from Ori and his brothers, wanting to go back to my bag to get another piece of bread for a snack (because now that I had been running around, I was more starved than ever), I noticed that as I did so, I was being watched. I figured it to be Fili or Kili watching over me as they often did but when I turned back in the direction of the company, I found Thorin's eyes were darkened and hard, staring at me intently.

“Miss Bilbo, good game there, lass!” 

The next thing I knew, I was being hoisted into the air and spun around by an excited Bifur, the voice of his cousin making me laugh loudly and hold on tightly. Once I was back down on the ground safely, I smiled up at him and thanked them both, “You guys gave Ori and I a run for our money, that's for sure!”

Playfully, I punched Bofur in the shoulder, more teasing than anything else, and went back to lean over for something to eat from my bag. Since I was already reaching in for something to eat, I grabbed two more little morsels and offered them to the brothers, smiling when they hesitated only for a brief moment before accepting. We stayed together talking about where I learned how to throw so well, my story becoming more animated as I went into impressions of my Mum when she initially showed me how to skip stones across the pond surface. 

Maybe it was the fact that I was talking about my Mum or even just as something as childish as learning how to skip stones, but at one point in my story Bifur ruffled my hair affectionately and I giggled at his display of almost brotherly kindness. Their voices were as close to my Mum as I could get given that they each could tickle me, with Bofur himself being the closest to how my Mum used to make me laugh. I was reminded so much of her in them that I almost felt myself tear up again from the thought of her.

“Awwww, don't tear up now, lass. Bifur's only teasing.”

A playful push to my shoulder caught me off guard and I was slipping on the slippery snow. Instinctively, I reached out to grab the nearest thing possible but in this case as I wasn't clearly thinking, the nearest thing possible was another dwarf and with the snow being as it was, we both went down.

In a mess of limbs, we tumbled down the side of the mountain hill that we were resting on, rolling on the ground in such a close bundle that when we finally stopped some fifteen feet away, I couldn't help but notice that Bofur was on top of me. I blinked in surprise just because of how we had fallen down the hill in the first place and again, just because I had Bofur on top of me. 

I flushed at the solid weight of him even as he lifted himself up to regain his own footing. I didn't think anything of it since moments before we had been roughhousing and it was my fault that we had fallen. I found it amusing, actually given that only a month before, anything like this would have made me sputter in a disbelief over being so close to a male.

As suddenly as Bofur and I had tumbled down the side of a mountain, my arm was being grabbed so tightly it hurt and I was being dragged up and away from Bofur. I know I squeaked in shock and surprise, my voice coming out a moment later like a yelp before I looked up and noticed that it was Thorin. His eyes were furious, darkened with a fury that I hadn't seen before but they weren't looking at me like I thought they would be. They were trained on Bofur, a clear warning to stay back, before he was turning away from the miner and pulling me back to camp. 

“What were you thinking!?”

His voice clawed at my arms painfully, making me wince quicker than I could stop it and just as quickly as he had come to collect me from Bofur's side, he stopped and looked at me. Or rather, he looked at where his hand was on my arm and then my face. His eyes were still furious but there was something else there in those blue depths that I couldn't place. 

He looked again at how hard he gripped my arm. I could tell by the way his eyes lingered that he didn't like it, and a moment later, he removed his hand so that he could direct me back to the camp with his hand on my lower back. I followed where he directed me, silent and unable to protest because of how shocking the situation was. Still upset at something, he glanced back in the direction of Bofur and Bifur; he then deposited me right next to Balin, sitting down with an angry huff next to me and pulling out from his own bag something to eat. 

Offering me a piece of his salted pork, I hesitated only a moment before I accepted it and chewed it softly.

“Good job, laddie.”

I looked over at Balin, surprised to find that he had commented on what had happened, but before I could even inquire as to what indeed had happened, Thorin answered with a grunt that signaled the end of any conversation.

 

After the awkward rest that remained silent even after we continued back up the mountain side, I wasn't any closer to discovering what that entire thing had been about. It felt all very possessive and very dwarfish but at the same time, whatever it was was acceptable because no one seemed to bat an eyelash at Thorin's behavior. 

Despite all that, I wasn't any closer to discovering what it was all about and when I attempted to ask, Thorin had grunted and asked for Dwalin to keep an eye on me as we climbed up the rocky ledges that spelled certain doom should we be too hasty. 

If all that weren't enough, Fili merely chuckled at me and told me about how easily I got into trouble. What made the evening even worse was that sometime when the sun began to set, a rain started up and the next thing we knew, a giant storm had started to rage overhead. 

There was an energy in the air though that wasn't familiar and the sounds that I heard all around didn't sound or feel at all like a normal storm. At some point while I gripped onto the rock wall, I leaned over and asked Dwalin, “Is this normal? It sounds awful!”

It really did sound awful. Thunderstorms were usually just a myriad of sensations against my lower back but this one had something in it that wasn't recognizable. I had never felt something like it before....

Balin's voice echoed behind me as he pointed to something in the distance, “This isn't a thunderstorm! It's a thunder battle!!” 

Balin was scared. I hadn't ever felt his voice so shaky on my cheek before.

I hadn't heard of such a phrasing and when I turned to see what Balin had pointed out, I almost wished I hadn't. Something was moving in the distance, something that was very large and very, very much what I heard earlier. 

“A Stone Giant.”


	29. The Thunder-Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Company must survive the Thunder-Battle...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap.   
> I'm totally over 100k words.... >_____> and we haven't even gotten halfway through the book.  
> I don't even know if I should be proud or just horrified of that. 
> 
> For the people who have been reading this, you're awesome. Thank you for sticking with me and allowing me to be this long winded. Hopefully we'll all continue to enjoy the story as we progress.
> 
> But yeah, thank you for all your support, amazing compliments, reviews, suggestions. Everything. Just everything! It really is SOOO amazing considering that this is my first released fanfic on such a scale. I just can't thank you all enough for how supported and loved I feel.
> 
> We'll also be getting another chapter later on today!

The rain poured down, icy cold droplets drenching our clothes as we struggled to keep our footing sure on such slippery rock cliffs.

The wind gusted all around us, whipping wet strands of my hair in my face and deafening the sound of all else. My mouth felt the cold sensation of its sound but though I tried to focus on the dwarves nearest me to hear whatever they said, the whirlwind of sounds from the storm made that impossible.

“Hey! Hold on!”

Thorin was at the front of our line, clutching at the rock wall as he tried to lead us onward but every moment that the storm continued, it was a harder and harder feat for him. I could barely register the feel of his voice through the onslaught of the wind and rain as I struggled for purchase against the rock wall. I tried to follow the sight of Fili's back as quickly as I could, focusing on the line of his shoulders just because the rain made it difficult to see much else.

I was frightened.

I had never been in such a storm like this and certainly not while I was on the rocky ledge of a mountain pass so very high up. The path we tried to quickly make our way on was craggy and barely held together by anything more than pure luck and the need to mock the more daring of traveler.

My breath caught in my throat when I stepped along the ledge, my foot slipping easily against the water slicked rocks and off the edge of the path. So quickly I realized that I had lost my footing. I reached out quick as I could, wanting desperately to grab the wall again but my palms scraped harshly against the sharp rocks instead of gripping anything. My fear quickened my heartbeat and thinking that I would fall, I almost cried out before I felt the harsh tug of Dwalin's hand as he grabbed onto my shoulder roughly and pulled me back towards the wall.

“Hold on, laddie!”

My fingers were practically numbed from the cold rain that still battered down over us relentlessly, but despite that fact, I gripped the wall as tightly as I could, fear nearly making me unable to move because of how close I had come to falling down the side of the mountain.

“We must find shelter!”

“Look out!”

I turned my head just as Dwalin yelled out for the company to take heed, eyes widening in disbelief at the sight of an enormous boulder coming at us from the very sky itself. It hadn't rolled from down a mountain side or even fallen from somewhere above it... it was literally in the air coming at us! 

It crashed above our heads in a thunder of noise, a harsh pound on my temple that nearly made me black out such was the intensity of the sensation. My eyes closed from the rumble of the mountain side vibrating with the impact of the boulder, fear making me grip the wall all the more tightly. The dwarves around me were shouting at one another, telling their brothers and relatives to watch their heads. 

“Hold on!”

That was Kili's voice, though it was barely felt and frightened. 

Sharp rocks and pebbles plummeted past us, beating against my arms and knocking around my body harshly. I felt them on my feet and kept my eyes closed for fear that if I opened them, I would fall. 

“Laddie!”

Dwalin's voice in my ear forced my eyes open to look at him and once I was focused on him, he looked at me approvingly before he directed me to look to my other side. Fili was no longer there, struggling himself to stay close to the train of dwarves that started to advance onward again. The group was trying to move again with Thorin but another crash of sound stopped us and made the group steady themselves.

“This is not a thunderstorm! It's a thunder-battle! Look!”

I had never even heard of such a thing as a thunder-battle but whatever it was had Balin frightened, his voice trembling against my cheek as he pointed out into the distance. I didn't really want to look for fear that another boulder was going to be coming at us again but when I turned to look, I was wishing for that to be the case. I would have given anything to have any other thing come at us if it meant I did not have to see the very creature I saw. 

It was impossibly enormous, far bigger than anything I had even dreamed of in all my peaceful sleep filled nights. A stone creature towering in the distance, rising out of the very mountain, slow and quick for all its massively large size. Its hands gripped the side of the mountain and rent from the mountain peak a piece of the structure itself. The boulder from before that hurdled towards us was not a boulder at all but an actual piece of the mountain! 

Fear twisted itself in my gut anew at the realization that we were close enough to actually witness such a creature. I wanted to reach out for Fili to possibly find some comfort or just some sort of balance to this crazy nightmare but as I looked around, I saw that the other dwarves were just as much at a loss as I was. Really, what would we be able to do in the midst of a thunder battle?

“Well, bless me!” I looked over Fili's shoulder and saw Bofur stepping out away from the wall foolishly. “Get back!” I screamed at him, desperately wanting him to take hold of the wall again but he couldn't hear me. “The legends are true... Giants! Stone-Giants!”

Stone-Giants. I had heard of such things from the fables I read about in books but the illustrations looked nothing like what was in front of us. The creatures in the books looked more like stone colored men but the real things were literally made of the rock of the mountain! The one that had torn a piece of the mountain away as if it were nothing at all turned in our direction and I seized up with fear when it hurled the chunk of rock in our direction with a cry. 

Instantly I covered my ears, the creature's wail reverberating in my skull painfully. It was so monstrously loud and we were so small compared to it. The chunk of rock that it had thrown at us sailed in the air so quickly and yet so without what would make it feel fast. It was so massive that it couldn't even be seen as quick. It went right over our heads, smacking into something behind us. 

I gasped when I saw another stone-giant just now revealed from the shadow of our mountain.

“Take cover, you fool!“

I looked at Fili, who was busy pulling Bofur back to the wall so that he could take cover or at the very least not be knocked down off the side of the cliff. He clutched to the wall, looking at me with fear in his eyes. 

Were we going to be okay? 

I didn't know. He didn't know. His hand briefly covered mine but in the next moment, he had to wrench it away to grip the side of the mountain as it started to shake and tremble. 

“Hold on!” 

The mountain shook beneath our very feet, rumbling with fury. 

Though the rock hadn't actually landed anywhere near us, rocks were being displaced above us and as the mountain quaked in new fury, the ledge beneath our feet started to crumple away. I gasped in fear, watching as my foothold crumbled away to something that was barely enough for my bare feet much less suitable for a burly dwarf. 

“Bilbo!”

Rock and stone fell all around us, once more smacking against our skin sharply with such force, I knew it would bruise. Dwalin's voice was on my cheek, pulling me back against the wall and I felt the cover of his hand over the top of my head as rocks fell overhead. As I gripped onto the wall, I realized that I felt something strange. 

Were we moving? 

I looked to my side, my eyes glued to the sight of my feet and wondering if what I imagined was really what was truly happening. The very mountain shook beneath our feet not merely because it had been brushed against by a stone-giant but because it was literally moving! I tried to draw away from the mountain side in fear, gripping onto Fili's jacket as I understood finally that the mountain was moving of its own volition.

We were on another stone-giant!

“What's happening?!”

I heard Kili shouting before my body rocked under the weight of the mountain shifting beneath us. It gave a great lurch before the ground shook again and split. The ledge we were standing on was splitting our group apart and every second we stood still, we were going to be separated. 

“Grab my hand!”

I reached out to take Fili's hand as he shouted, his voice filled with fear and shock but when my fingers met with the hard expanse of his back, I looked up and saw that Fili hadn't been talking to me. He had been talking to Kili, who looked too shocked for words as the mountain gave one final lurch and separated us from the ledge where the other group stood. 

Suddenly we were pulled away from them, the gap too large now that even should we try, we would not be able to jump across. The creature that we unknowingly hitched a ride on was getting up from its mountain bed, slow moving with its enormous size and completely unknowing of who just stood on it. It shifted and moved, shaking us until fingers were scraped raw from having to grip for support. Fili looked so lost beside me, not knowing what to do now that he was separated from his brother.

“Fili!”

I shouted at him to snap him out of it but he didn't seem to hear me and even when I shook him to get him to focus, he wasn't able to acknowledge me. 

In a great motion, the stone-giant stood up on its feet fully and swayed, knocking its leg into the other side of the mountain. Out of the corner of my eye and in the distance, I saw Thorin lead the other half of the group to the safety of the mountain that wasn't actually a stone-giant in disguise. They were shouting by the looks of it but with the sounds of the thunder-battle all around us as well as the rain and thunder, I couldn't even hope to hear any of it.

Now they were so impossibly out of our reach and we out of theirs. 

Fate would be the one to decide what it did with us. We were on our own at the mercy of the stone-giant. I looked at Fili, who still did not seem to register anything beyond what was happening seconds in front of him. No doubt this was nothing like what he ever had to deal with in his time out in the wild. Youth and inexperienced had let panic cloud his mind. 

I was alone to deal with my own sense of fear.

The battle raged on above us, the three giants fighting for whatever reason they felt they needed to do so. We were helpless, forced to cling onto what we could and ride out whenever the stone-giant took a step and shook with us on it. Rocks kept falling, the rain drenched us. Thunder roared above us. 

I was terrified and I wanted to go home.

I grabbed onto Dwalin's thick forearm and felt my fingers nearly claw at him in panic and a need to find some sort of support in all this madness.

I wanted it to stop! My body trembled even as I panicked and felt my feet slipping. I desperately cried for it to stop!

“Bilbo!” Dwalin's sharp shout in the air, his voice a harsh slap on my cheek; I opened my eyes and found him looking down at me, the warrior in him unable to let his fear command him. He looked at me seriously, “Stay focused!” 

I let the breath I had been holding go. 

I nodded. I would focus on Dwalin as best I could.

In my eyes was written the fear that I knew I could barely keep in check. With Fili unable to manage himself and now only Dwalin to keep me centered, I was still only hopelessly clinging to whatever hope I could that we would get out of this alive. I knew that we would probably die and I knew that that was what my eyes told Dwalin. He smirked at me, wild and unafraid, “By Aulë, I'll not let this bastard kill me before it knows my name and I punch it in its balls!”

Fili's head whipped around to look at me as I released a sharp bark of laughter into the air. By Yavanna, only Dwalin could joke so freely while staring up at Death's face!

I gasped in shock as the giant moved with us on its leg, the force of the gusts of air around us nearly pushing us off the ledge as the creature above us punched at another nearby. Another piece of the mountain torn and once more thrown our way to knock into the giant we stood on. 

We were pulled along, so close to the other group who still shouted at us to do anything other than just be forced to stay still at the mercy of the creature. 

The ground quaked and in horror, I realized that we were falling. The creature itself was falling!

“Get ready, lads!”

Startlingly fast, we were hurdling towards the mountain side. My eyes saw the cliff coming at us fast. If we wanted to survive this, we would need to jump into the revealed space beneath the sharp point of the cliff for safety. Get ready for our doom or get ready to jump, Dwalin made sure that we would be ready for whichever one would be able to come and get us. 

We readied for the jump for none of us wanted to die that day but even as the stone-giant fell downward, the rain made everything so slippery; the dwarves beside me tensed with their readiness to jump but even as I did so, I felt the ledge give way beneath me. My foothold crumbled and I felt myself slip down before I could jump with the others, a shock of panic coursing through my body even as I gasped out.

My hands reached out for anything and with a harsh crack of pressure, I felt the impact of where I crashed onto the side of the ledge. Met with my upper body, I was nearly halfway off the cliff but I was already slipping, struggling to keep a hold on the side of the cliff. The sides of the mountain were useless even as I struggled with my toes to find some sort of footing to either stand or push myself up. My fingers dug into the harsh rock, pain freshly burdened in my side.

I winced at the tenderness already making me unable to reach out my arms to try and find something to grab onto. 

I heard a great collective stomping sound, looking up to see Thorin and the others just whisk by me without even stopping. I didn't even have any time to yell out in anger at being so ignored while in danger for as I tried to pull myself up, my grip slipped. 

Sharp pain raced along my side as I caught the edge of the ledge tightly, feeling every second that I was about to slip again because of the rain. The pain zapped my strength, my fear making me unable to call out to the others to see where I had been.

The irony of the situation was not lost on me. How days before I had thought of pushing Thorin off a cliff in anger just because of how he had been such a bastard. Now, all I wanted was for him to save me before I fell! 

“Where's Bilbo?” I winced, feeling the sound of Bofur's voice on my feet trembling and tickling against my skin all at once. I wanted to scream at him to shut up because his voice was going to get me killed! Already my arms were burning in agony from how I still struggled to keep myself from falling. “Where's the Hobbit?!”

I was going to fall. 

I felt my breath start to come harder, the panic in me welled up again despite all my best effort to not let it do so. I wanted to remember Dwalin's advice to remain focused but I was falling and I was going to die!

Please, fingers, don't let go!

“GET HER!!”

That was Thorin's voice screaming. I could feel it like ice down my back even as my grip slipped from the ledge and I felt the harsh pull of gravity grab me down. My fingers felt nothing as they scraped down the cliff side, catching onto a small jutting section of rock that I gripped tightly in my panic to save myself from falling.

I was too afraid to use my feet to try and find purchase below me. I could barely breathe with the realization that when I looked up, Ori's hand was barely able to even reach me. I was too far down. I was going to fall. I was too afraid to try. 

“Grab my hand!!” 

Ori was shouting at me, his hand trying its best to grip my wrist so that even if I fell, I would be able to be dragged up. I reached up, trying so desperately to reach Bofur's hand that seemed just so very far away but when I lifted my hand, I winced from the pain in my side. I was slipping. I was cursing at myself for not being able to do more to save myself.

I caught the sight of movement next to me, the sharp flash of lightning reflecting the wet soaked contours of the mountain. Thorin gripped the edge of the cliff and swung down, his feet firmly catching the small rocky cracks for a sure of footing as he could get. How envious I was of his shoes at that moment considering that they provided excellent traction versus the soles of my feet. 

I could barely see his face in the light, the rain obstructing too much. His grip on my shoulder hurt such was strength in it but I didn't care. He could have wrestled it from my socket if it meant he were able to save me. Thorin pulled me up as easily as someone with his strength could, using the momentum of his lift to catch me underneath my thigh and push up. Higher up and closer to Bofur and Ori, I was grabbed by their hands and pulled up the cliff.

His grip loosened as he felt the two dwarves pull up on me but in the next second, I felt a harsh tug pull me back though not enough to shake me from the grip of Bofur and Ori. I looked back to where Thorin had been, seeing that the fabric of my skirt was now torn from where he unconsciously gripped it out of instinct. He had lost his footing on the cliff side and had fallen! I wanted to reach out to help him but Dwalin had a firm hold on him and even if I wanted to try and help out, Ori and Bofur gripped me so tightly out of fear that I couldn't move barely even an inch.

I watched as Thorin was hoisted up from Dwalin's strength alone, grunting and pulling until he was safely back on top of the ledge and hastily standing up on his own two feet. No doubt the near fall had scared him or at least shocked him into some sort of adrenaline filled need for action for he was not content to sit idly and regain himself like the rest of us. Thorin was on his feet and trying to make his way past Dwalin. 

“I thought we'd lost our burglar!”

Dwalin sounded so relieved, his voice tickling my cheek but before I could even enjoy the sensation of his voice and the fact that I had been saved from what would have been a most gruesome fall, Thorin's voice cut out into the night, icy and sharp. Equal parts fear and anger. 

“She's been lost ever since she left home.” He sneered in my direction, his disdain over my softness and the fact that out of everyone in the company that night, it had only been me who nearly fell off the cliff. Only I was the one weak enough – enough of a burden – to actually need to be rescued. 

“She should never have come. She'll find no place with us here.”

His words cut at my heart harshly because as I heard them and felt their icy sharpness on my body, I knew that he meant it more than just surface meaning. I would find no place with the company as part of them no matter how hard I tried and I would never truly have a place in the hearts of the Durin's either. I was a burden to them in more ways than just the obvious.

Dwalin and Thorin disappeared further down the way, their attention already on something else besides what was said to me. Ori and Bofur still hadn't moved, were content to only sit there and wait for whatever order was given. I was miserable. I could barely breathe such was the pain in my side and from the distress I felt over Thorin's words. I wanted to cry but I knew it would be unwanted and burdensome to do so. 

“I think they found a cave, Bilbo.”

Ori's softness against my palms. The two dwarves were releasing me and finding their footing so that they could make their way inside the cave. Ori helped me up gently, taking in my appearance and trying to be as gentle as possible considering that we both looked to be in a terrible fright still.

Why did they not say anything or even looked shocked by what Thorin said to me? 

I followed behind Bofur in a daze as he led me to the mouth of the cave, a concealed crack of a opening that would have easily been missed had we not really been looking for some form of shelter. We slipped inside the cave, instantly sheltered from the storm still raging outside. I moved away from the two as soon as I could, watching as Dwalin and Thorin looked around the cave. 

They were checking it for something but I did not know what.

“There's nothing here.”

Dwalin finally confirmed, the soft warm glow of his lantern moving around the back of the cave, even as Gloin rustled around for something nearby. He pulled from his bag the necessities to start a fire, ready and willing to try and get some warmth back into our bones. We had had a rough night and our wet clothes and empty bellies would do us no better.

Even as I thought this, I became aware of just how much pain I was in, how much my side ached and how I wanted to clutch at it just to ease some of the pressure off. I vaguely wondered if I had injured myself sometime when I was on the ledge but I couldn't accurately account my own memory from such a crazy experience. All I knew was that my ribs hurt and I was miserably cold from the rain. The fact that my skirt was torn now only added to my frustrations.

I huddled against the side of the cave, trying to ease some of the pressure off my ribs but finding no relief from the ache that coursed through my body with each breath that I took.

“No! No fires! Not in this place.” I glanced up, not really wanting to see Thorin as he acted the leader of the company, so needlessly cold and mighty. His attitude repelled me so soon after his harsh words to me, making me want to curl up in some dark corner where I was assured he wouldn't be able to find me. I watched him as he moved around from the back of the cave, back to the opening so that he could look at everyone. “Get some sleep, everyone. We start at first light!”

I felt sick with pain, not having before experienced such a thing as intense as it before. For all my wild adventures into the forests in search of elves, never before had I so much as even stubbed a toe. This new pain was unknown to me and it irritated me that I would need to deal with it on top of everything else. It seemed that what was said before was just simply the status quo and now I was supposed to just accept it. I would get no more explanation nor would anyone try to deny it.

Was I to be abandoned or was I just supposed to continue on like nothing had happened? Had the brothers heard?

I had so many questions that I wanted to ask, so many thoughts that were racing in my head over what it all meant or if I were only supposed to take it as Thorin's temper getting the better of him. I was tired, hungry, and felt sick with pain and all I wanted to do was cry. I was a burden though if I did so. I was a burden if I told someone about my injury. 

I stood as still as I could as everyone in the company moved around the cave, finding comfortable spots for themselves and setting up their bedrolls. They would follow Thorin's orders gladly tonight if only because of how harsh the night had truly been for everyone. I looked at the dwarves as they prepared their bedding, their family members so close to them that they could reach out and touch them if they needed comfort. 

Dori was fawning over Ori, having been scared from the time when the youngest dwarf had been separated from him and his brother. While Bofur prepared himself for the first watch, Bifur sat close by with Bombur just starting to curl up next to him. Even Balin and Dwalin, despite not appearing very close and often arguing, laid out their bed rolls next to one another. Everyone had family to comfort them after such an ordeal.

If I wanted to be comforted by family, I would find no such thing here. If I wanted to be comforted by a Hobbit, who would not think me weak for surviving this, I too would be unable to find any such thing. I clutched at my ribs and frowned. If I wanted to find comfort, I would need to find Kili and Fili, who were busy laying out their bedrolls next to one another.

Noticing me finally off near the wall, still unable to really move because I didn't know exactly where I would be welcome, Fili looked up from his bedroll and spotted me. His smile was automatic but there was something about it that was off. It looked strained and weak, full of a nervousness that I couldn't place the intention of. Did he believe in what Thorin said?

I felt as if Thorin's words were made true by such a smile. I felt suddenly so very foolish for ever having trusted in Fili's gestures when Kili and Thorin seemed to want to exclude me.

Had I actually guessed it accurately when I told Fili that he was the only one who loved me?

I watched him as he made to move towards me, no doubt wanting to ask me why I still stood so far away and why I wasn't coming over automatically to push myself into their brotherly affair. I felt envious of their love and how I was a burden to it.

“Don't.”

Both Fili and I looked up, Thorin's voice sharp in the air, that same icy fear chilling down my back with a faint tremble. Scared still and nervous. The other dwarves looked at him in surprise, wondering what was going on. They knew what was happening as soon as they saw that he spoke to Fili, who was obviously coming towards me.

“Thorin?”

Fili's voice was equally as nervous, though he did his best to hide it. He glanced back at me but his eyes were so closed off and I couldn't even really place what was happening behind such a tone. When Thorin did not answer the inquiry, Fili's stance hardened and he went to come closer to me. He wanted me to be beside him if only to comfort me momentarily. 

“Just don't.” Fili stopped again, noticing now just as how I did that Thorin's tone was quiet, stilled and reserved. “Just stop, Fili. By me tonight.”

Both the brothers looked at him before Kili started to move his bedroll over. I watched Fili, wondering what he would do to such a plea given by Thorin, for indeed it had been a plea. He sighed, exhaustion settling into his stance before he abandoned his earlier intention of wanting to bring me over. He went to his bedroll and packed it up so that he too could move it closer to Thorin.

I stayed quiet because I didn't want to be a burden. I stayed quiet because I didn't want to appear weak but it didn't change the fact that I felt as if I had been utterly abandoned.


	30. Longing for Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo decides to go back home to Shire but as Thorin said, caves are seldom unoccupied in the Misty Mountains...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a funny note, did you guys know that when I first started this story, I was going to entirely resolve the pairing thing and have it be done after the trolls? 
> 
> It was only because people liked it and because I couldn't really finish it there that I decided to carry it on to the beast it now had become. :D 
> 
> Next up is Riddles in the Dark!

As hard as I tried I just couldn't will myself to sleep.

For hours I had been trying to shut my mind off and force myself to feel something other than the sad wondering and raw pain that was somehow still able to keep me awake despite just how exhausted I was. My body was sore from head to toe, the cold sandy cave floor providing nothing more than misery as I rolled from side to side trying to find a position that didn't hurt so much.

What I wouldn't have given to have Gandalf here to provide me with a small healing spell or even just a bit of tea from Oin that could possibly take the edge off such pain. What I wouldn't have given just to fall asleep. I closed my eyes again, doing my best to remain still and try to keep the thoughts from cornering me.

As soon as the darkness came, the thoughts followed. Thorin's face sneering at me in disdain, once more saying that I would find no place with him, his nephews, or his company. I frowned and tried to will the image away, turning on my side and wincing as fresh pain coursed through my side. I turned on my other side, curling into a small ball when that didn't help either. I remembered Fili's unsteady smile, nervous and unable to comfort me when in the past it had been like a healing balm for all my troubles.

I needed Fili to smile at me. I wanted Thorin to take back what he had said.

I couldn't not think of it though. I couldn't stop my thoughts from once again hearing his words.

I could barely think as it was, the discomfort of trying to sleep on my side so overwhelming in how distracting it was. I turned onto my back, finally finding a position that was somewhat comfortable. I stared at the ceiling as I tried to let exhaustion take over my body fully, weighing down my limbs and making me not want to move. I closed my eyes, wishing to drift off, hoping that sleep would come and bring with it a better tomorrow full of explanations and possibly even an apology if I was lucky. 

I heard snoring. 

I felt the weight of their snores press down on my chest and instantly I couldn't find the necessary peace to sleep anymore. I turned on my side, discontent and covered my ears. The sounds were relentless! The storm outside was still going on and I felt them on my lower back but the snores were the worst. I willed my own heartbeat to not even be heard through my own ears. 

I was tired. I wanted to sleep. I needed to sleep.

I sat up, unable to take the sounds and looked over to where Fili and the others were. I was tempted and nearly two seconds off from picking myself up from my spot and nudging Fili over so that I could burrow down into his coat and tell him what the hell I was supposed to think about everything that had happened. 

I had resolved to order him to tell me what was going on with Thorin and Kili. I would allow nothing less tomorrow morning. Yes, tomorrow morning I would pull him aside and demand he tell me just what was going on with the other two and if I was feeling particularly brave, I would even demand it of Thorin! 

I stared at Thorin from across the cave, his arms guarded across his chest as he leaned back against the ground, Fili pressed to his side with Kili rolled off towards the wall. I would have given anything to be right there in the middle of that pile but even as I thought of my want, I thought that the feeling of desire was not of merit.

I rested my head in my hands and realized that despite all my intention to demand of Fili to give me answers to some of my most pressing questions, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't be able to pull him aside tomorrow. Thorin would stop me. I would stop me.

I felt as if I didn't have the right to ask of Fili such a thing. I felt I had even less of a right to ask Kili for any information concerning himself or Thorin's attitude. If I felt as if I were not worthy then what was I truly to do? 

In the Shire, I would have been congratulated for lasting through the night. By Yavanna, I would have been congratulated just for surviving past the borders of Bree. In a way, I was proud that I hadn't locked up with fear like Fili had during the thunder-battle. Dwalin had kept me together and I felt that I should have gotten the credit I deserved for such a thing. I was a Hobbit and we weren't hardened warriors or anything like a dwarf would be... 

I just wanted to be acknowledged for not dying. For surviving the thunder-battle with what a Hobbit would consider flying colors...

I only survived though because of Thorin.

I buried my head into my knees. Maybe I wasn't cut out for this adventuring stuff? I was once a Took just like my Mum but by the time Gandalf came to collect me from Bag End, I was hardly one anymore. I was so much a Baggins that I couldn't even help that fact anymore. I was a Hobbit. Just a simple Hobbit and no Hobbit should have ever thought to leave for any silly adventures.

What had I been thinking? 

Truly I had been a fool when I decided that I could actually come along on this quest for no better reason than a sorrowful song and a fancying for their voices and how they affected me. Now I was paying for the fact that I hadn't really thought about it at all in the long run. I had been an even bigger fool when I allowed Thorin to barge his way into my life that first night in Bag End and I was stupid for being taken in by the brothers.

How could I been so stupid to disregard everything that my parents had taught me about love and finding someone special? I had so blindly walked into their circle that I hadn't even stopped to think of anything like this. I had thought that our adventure would make our relationship more difficult to express but I hadn't thought that wouldn't be there! I hadn't thought of a time when Thorin would demand that the brothers part from me. Really though, what had I been expecting. Nothing was ever set in stone between us. Only Fili spoke of love but even then it was so simple. So casual. What were we even called? Lovers? Friends? Mates? I didn't know. I didn't understand. I had nothing to go on for such understanding because I had never asked. I had foolishly thought they would tell me if I only gave them space and time.

Foolishly I thought I had three dwarves whom I could call my lovers, all of who I thought I would consider my own. Traveling through the Misty Mountains, I realized that there wasn't an inch of them that belonged to me. Every inch that I thought belonged to me was imagined and now not even that illusion remained. 

I wanted to go home. I wanted to go back to my bed and curl up under my blankets where such things as adventures never happened and I would be allowed to grow old in peace and quiet. I didn't want dwarves to come into my life and mess everything up. I didn't want dwarves to inspire feelings of such passion and love and then just take it all away. 

I would go home. 

I opened my eyes and looked up into the dark cave, understanding with a bitter clarity just what I had thought and agreed to do. I would return home and I would do it tonight. Not tomorrow, not the day after. Tonight. I didn't want to say goodbye to anyone or try to explain my feelings to the Durin's who I knew wouldn't be able to understand. 

I got up from my spot, bending over uncomfortably and wincing in pain as I rolled my bedroll back up and stuffed it back into my backpack, clipping the leaf clasp on it shut and reaching down for my sword. Quickly, I belted it on, pulling it tight around my waist. Turning around to make sure that I hadn't disturbed anyone in the company, I reached down for my backpack, settling it on my shoulders and tip toeing my way through the pile of dwarves that littered the floor of the cave.

My steps were silent, not at all making even the lightest of sleepers awaken. I was almost to the mouth of the cave when I heard Bofur's voice and I cursed myself for not remembering that I would need to deal with our watchman. 

“Whoa! Where do you think you're going?”

I stopped, turning only slightly to face Bofur head on. I would at least not be a coward about this. I was certainly no dwarf and I wouldn't need to drag this out but I would at least give Bofur a proper goodbye. 

“Back to Rivendell.”

“No, no!” Bofur rushed up from his spot, worry in his eyes and his voice a trembling touch against my feet. “You can't turn leave us now, eh? You're part of the company. You're one of us.”

How I wanted to be a part of the company. How I wanted for Thorin to never had spoken the truth of things so loudly that all would be able to hear. I was not one of the company and I wouldn't ever be just on the simple basis of fact that I wasn't a dwarf and I wasn't some battle hardened Hobbit that could take on an orc and come away unscathed. 

“I'm not though, am I? Thorin said I had no place with you and he was right.”

I wanted to explain that I wasn't a Took but it was a reference that the dwarves had never asked me about and yet another thing that we wouldn't understand about one another. I shook my head, “I'm just a Hobbit, just a silly little Hobbit. I'm not a Dwarf and I'm just not enough. I don't know what I was thinking.”

Bofur looked hurt by what I said, like he wanted to deny everything but he watched my eye contort with emotion, fall in on itself as I tried to keep myself from crying. I just wanted to leave and not drag this out and yet here I was crying to the first dwarf who was willing to listen. I really was as soft as Thorin always believed I was. 

“I should have stopped myself from running out my door.”

“You're upset about earlier. I understand!”

“No! You don't understand! None of you do!” I was upset about earlier. I was upset about right now. I was in pain emotionally and physically and all I wanted to do was bury my face into Thorin's fur jacket even whilst I was kicking him in the face. I wanted to cry and shout and scream at all of them for being so dumb and heartless. I was mean and I didn't want to be mean but I couldn't stop it.

“You're dwarves! You're used to this life! To living on the road, not belonging anywhere, not caring about anyone else but you and your own!”

I pulled back, my hands covering my mouth because of what I had just said so angrily. It was so unlike me that I instantly felt ashamed and my face grow hot. Tears came freely and I was horrified by the fact that Bofur only looked stunned and hurt by my cruel words. I had meant them but I hadn't meant those words. I hadn't meant to hurt Bofur in such a way. 

I was angry and upset but what I said had gone too far. 

“...Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't-”

I stopped myself because no apology could ever make up for such harsh words. I wanted to look away but Bofur, as kind as he was didn't even look like he was that offended by my words. Yes, his face had gone slack with surprise but his eyes still held a kindness in them that said that he understood. He understood why I had said it. It only made me feel worse. 

“No, you're right.” He nodded slowly, his eyes crinkling with sadness even as he looked back at the company, “We just... we don't.”

He couldn't finish, his voice cracking even as it brushed along my feet light as a feather. He couldn't bring himself to agree or even defend against what said. He stopped and looked back at me with a small smile on his face, coming close so that he could grip my shoulder. 

“I wish you all the luck in the world. I really do.”

Just like that, I had been forgiven. Just like that I was free to go. 

I took the opportunity to leave on what I would consider the very best of terms all things considering and I reciprocated the gesture, clutching onto his forearm tightly for a moment before letting go and turning to the mouth of the cave.

“What's that?”

“Hmm?”

I stopped, looking back at Bofur, the tickle on my feet telling me of his surprise and curiosity over whatever had caught his attention. I traced where his eyes were looking but when I looked down at my waist, I only saw my sword....

...which was glowing blue. 

I reached down, hoping to Yavanna that it was just a trick of the light but even as I slowly pulled it from its sheathe, I saw that it was not a trick. It really was glowing blue. 

I remembered what Gandalf told me.

I couldn't breathe. I looked at Bofur, “It's blue.”

The ground creaked, mechanical noises turning below my feet. I looked down and saw how the sand shifted and exposed lines across the cave floor all the way to the back. 

“Wake up.” Thorin's voice on my arm. Had he been awake the entire time? Had he heard everything I said? Had he heard the ground creaking too? “Wake up!!”

The ground opened up beneath the entire company and despite even me being so close to the cave's opening, I too was swallowed by the shifting panels. Slipping down, I couldn't even grab at anything before I knew that I was falling along with everyone else. Everyone was forced to wake in a great whirl of panic, the rush of sand and gravity all around us as we fell through a giant tunnel. 

We were falling underneath the mountain itself, crashing against the bottom of the tunnel. As soon as my body crashed into the harsh curve of the tunnel, I cried out as fresh agony burst from my ribs. I wanted to clutch and grab at anything but the sides of the tunnel were too smooth to grab onto and we slid so quickly that even if I managed to grab a hold of anything, it would have been too painful to actually maintain any grasp on.

I tumbled, twisting and turning with the curve of the tunnel, knocking into the others painfully as we all scrapped along the rocky edges. 

There was a great light rushing towards us and I knew it was the mouth of the tunnel that would deposit us wherever it was designed to. As soon as we landed, we would be trapped and we wouldn't be able to escape. We were in more trouble now than when we were against the stone-giants.

One by one we each landed in what looked to be a giant clawed cage meant to keep us from falling off the edge of the mechanism meant to catch us. Amidst the gruntings and groanings, I landed with a cry of pain, a fresh burst of agony coming from my ribs, on top of a dwarf and only realized that it was Thorin when I looked down and saw him looking up at me.

We both heard a series of sounds behind us and instantly, my palms felt like something was cutting them. I turned to look at the sight that Thorin caught over my shoulder, seeing how a hoard of goblins were coming at us. I expected Thorin to push me off of him so that he could try and defend himself and his company but he did no such thing; so quickly the goblins were upon us and Thorin clutched me tightly to him. Their horrid cries in my ears, the cutting sensation of my palms, I felt hands grabbing me as they tried to pull me away from Thorin. He refused to let them separate us, wrenching me from them and turning so that they would need to pull at him instead. 

Once he was pulled to his feet, he cried out, “Dwalin!!” 

His voice was icy with fear again, pushing me with all his strength away from him at the front of the company and into Dwalin's arms further back where the goblins weren't yet able to go. Even as goblins pushed the group up and tried to grip onto each of us, Dwalin's grip on me was strong until once again they tried to grab at me. They pulled him forward, tugging us both along the wooden walkway. He growled out something in Khuzdul and once again I was being pushed to the back where Nori caught me and pushed me behind him. They wanted me behind the entire group so that I would be as hidden as I could possibly be. 

As the goblins pulled the company along the walkway, such a thing as remaining hidden was not something that could be done but as we were dragged along in a great rush of dwarf and goblin, I realized that I actually was only being pushed by the pull of bodies and not actually any goblin hand.

I stopped being pulled along and ducked down. 

Nothing pulled me anymore. On my hands and knees, I saw the company still being pulled away at an alarming pace. What would I do if I were separated from them entirely? Leave? Try and help them? What could I possibly do? 

I crawled out of the way of the walkway, not wanting to be seen by any stray goblin that might come out of the shadows; silently, I waited until only a flutter of birds remained before I crept out and looked around. Though the area was lit with some lighting, it was still too dark really see much. I pulled out my sword to try and give myself better lighting, the blade glowing brightly and casting everything around me in a blue tinge. Slowly I went along the walkway, hoping to remain hidden. 

A moment later, I realized what a foolish thing that had been to think. How could I remain hidden when we were in a goblin nest?

A goblin taller than me came at me, a scream coming from its mouth even as it charged me. I flinched back in terror and pain, instantly bringing my sword up to try and do anything that wouldn't get me so easily killed by the goblin. I deflected one of its attacks by pure luck alone and I rushed it with my shoulder when it came to charge me again. Its grip was relentless on my clothing, unable to be pushed off as it latched onto my back and tried to unbalance me. 

I was falling again. I had fallen off the walkway. I rolled along the ground, the impact making me drop my sword. I grabbed onto the nearest thing I could see, a rope that burned my hands when I gripped it to try and stop myself from falling completely. There was too much momentum though and before I knew it, I had run out of rope and was plummeting down into the darkness. 

I felt like I had been rolling and tumbling along rock for an eternity, unable to understand if this was what death would be like when really falling off a cliff side. 

I landed with a harsh thud in something soft enough to cushion my fall but not enough to distract me from the fresh wave of pain that erupted from my ribs. I was sick again with the pain of my injury. I was fading. I could feel the darkness closing in around me. 

Wherever I had landed would be as much a riddle to me as what was out there in the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was too exhausted to properly edit this. I desperately needed sleep. I'll edit it when I wake up. I'm sorry if it was hard to understand because I just didn't bother with that.


	31. Riddles in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All alone in the dark, Bilbo must figure out a way to return to her companions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we've come to the most well known scene in the book and movie! Hopefully, I've managed to make it unique. Also, sorry for the delay on this... I knew it would be long but I didn't expect to be so distracted while writing it.

When I woke, I immediately wondered if I really had opened my eyes at all. It was dark. Darkness pervaded every sense of mine that even as I turned my head, I couldn't see anything more than just the inky blackness that was my entire world. 

I was alive. 

That was a good a sign as any, I figured, and rolled over to try and get my bearings as best I could. 

My side ached horribly still, pain made raw again from my movement and when I fully sat up on my knees, I once again was made to understand that there really was nothing but darkness around me. With eyesight not even an option, I felt around the ground for what had broken my fall, touching the soft texture of what felt strange and nasty before I stood up. 

Whatever I landed on felt gross and creepy, my face still in a grimace of disgust as I looked around and tried to see if there was any little speck of light to be found. Off a little ways in the distance, I caught the very faint glow of my sword and slowly stepped forward, fear of the unknown making my progress slow as I went towards the light. 

There was a wall. I clung to it in relief, following along its rough surface slowly until I was able to reach out for the weapon. It was glowing faintly, warning me that goblins were far off but not too far that I wouldn't need to be concerned about them. I looked up, wondering if I could probably climb back up since I had indeed fallen down to where I was now. One glimpse at the wall and I knew that was a poor idea. It glistened with moisture and even if I could think to climb it, my ribs wouldn't have allowed me that while hauling up my pack. 

Speaking of pack... Using my sword as what source of light I could, I patted myself down, making sure that everything was still well attached and in fine enough shape. My clothes were somewhat wet and definitely smelling as if I had rolled around in mold for far too long. 

I searched the area using the sword as best I could but I was still unable to see much further than a few inches from wherever I directed the weapon. I gazed down at where I landed and squinted. Mushrooms. Oh, alright then. Mushrooms...those weren't so bad. Don't even know what all the fuss was about with thinking they were strange and nasty.

I looked around again.

What would I do now? I couldn't climb back up and I couldn't cry for help. I had no other means of light aside from my sword and even if I traveled in the direction where it might glow brighter, I wasn't even sure if I _wanted_ to go that way. Any further away from the goblins and I would be completely in the dark. 

Despite being a Hobbit and not instantly given to panic concerning the dark, even I had to admit that being down here – where ever I was – was not a particularly pleasing thought. Yes, I wasn't panicking at the moment but that didn't mean I wouldn't given enough time in the near darkness. I had to find some way out and I would need to do it by myself. 

All by myself.

I looked back up where I assumed I fell from and thought of the dwarves; what became of them after we were separated? They were taken so quickly by the goblins and now given however much time passed between me being knocked out and then, were they even still alive? Goblins were nasty creatures and given the numbers that came for us after falling through the tunnel, I wondered if Thorin and the others would have been able to defend themselves? Even if they had, were they injured? Were they injured badly? 

I fretted with worry over them, wanting to climb back up the wall where I came from if only because it seemed like the quickest method to get back to the others. 

A thought passed my mind though; why was I worrying over how to get back to them? Before this entire fiasco with the goblins, I was on my way back to Rivendell and I was literally caught in the middle of leaving! I had decided to leave and was doing as such! I was resolved myself to not care about the dwarves and their quest anymore so why was I bothering with seeing if I could help them now? 

I knew the answer immediately. I didn't even need to think of it to know completely. I still loved all of them. I still cared for Fili and I thought of Kili. Despite everything that Thorin had been doing the past few days, he protected me from the goblins... 

I had to find a way back to the others. If I couldn't find a way using the cave walls, I would just need to find it through the cave passages. 

I adjusted my backpack and squared my shoulders but for all my gusto to begin my search for the way out, I still moved slowly from the fear of what was unknown in the darkness. Even with the sword, I was afraid of what was hiding out there. I thought I heard noises as I moved along the coarse wall but I couldn't feel anything against my body so I knew it was only a trick of my mind. Whenever a real sound came, I wasn't able to place it accurately. Something against my shoulder, a brush against my leg. A tingle on my face. I knew I was scared. 

I wandered along in the dark, slow moving and with my worry growing in strength every passing second. Even with my hand registering the feel of the rough rock wall and the other acting as my lighting, I still felt like I was overwhelmed by the darkness. More than once I had to stop because I just felt like I would be lost in the darkness forever.

More than once, I had to tell myself that I could do this. I could continue if only I caught my breath.

I wandered until I was tired. I wandered even after I was exhausted.

Slow shuffling step after slow shuffling step, I continued down the long passage, not knowing where it was leading, only knowing that it was twisting and turning faintly. The darkness pervaded everything. I stopped. I went. I stopped again. I pressed on. I knelt down because I felt small. I got back up to continue on. Darkness everywhere. I jumped in fright when a flutter of wings and tiny animal squeaks whirred around me, stopping and practically seeking comfort from the wall just so that I had something to ground myself. 

It was darkness all around me. 

I closed my eyes just because it felt like it would help keep the unknown horrors of the cave away from me. If my eyes were shut, it was artificial darkness. A blackness of my own choosing. 

When the bats finally could not be heard any longer, I opened my eyes again and looked around with the use of my sword again. I had to keep going. I had to pull myself together. I wasn't going to be of any use here by myself and certainly not if I was just going to stay in one place. I couldn't count on anyone rescuing me down here. I needed to help myself and I could only do that by moving forward.

Resolved to start moving again, I only made it a few steps before my feet stepped in something gross feeling and oozy and I found myself stumbling back in fright. For as slimy as whatever it was that I stepped on, it wasn't on my mind for long since when I stumbled back, I hissed in pain from the sharp sting of a rock on the bottom of my foot.

Even though my Hobbit feet were toughened from years of walking barefoot, even things like rocks could wound me if caught at the right angle. I knew as soon as I went down on my knees that it had broken skin. I could feel it when my hand went down to touch the cut and definitely knew it was going to be more than troublesome when I held up my hand to my sword and saw fresh blood.

I tried to look for the rock that hurt me, wanting to see if maybe anything was on it that I should concern myself with but the second I went to do so, I was sure that I saw a flash of gold. I squinted in the darkness, not sure if what I was looking at was quite real. I moved my sword down and reached for it, surprised when my fingers came away with a tiny ring. Just a simple, little ring. Nothing more. I held it up to the light, turning it in my hand for a moment before I just decided to pocket it. A ring would do me no good down here anyway.

I looked around again, sighing deeply when I felt my eyes burn from exhaustion.

What was _wrong_ with me? I wasn't even away from the dwarves for more than... I don't even know how long, but I couldn't have been away for long and yet I already sported a new injury to add to what seemed like a rapidly growing list. My head was pounding from where I most likely hit it on landing into the mushroom patch, my foot was stinging, and my ribs hurt. What was next? Getting myself wedged in between cave walls? Did I even have to wait long until some goblin found me down here to kill me? 

I sighed in frustration over where my thoughts were going because in all honesty, this was probably Thorin's major concern all along. From the very first moment I left his sight, I had a penchant for getting into trouble and I had unfortunately kept to such a pattern at every turn. Literally whenever Thorin wasn't looking at me, I was either getting into trouble on my own or making trouble with the brothers. The only time I ever seemed to make him happy was when I was within eyesight of him!

My eyes opened in realization. 

This was Thorin's fear. 

I was currently living in it. If Thorin was actually alive somewhere above me, he would be thinking of it whilst trying to deal with the issues before him. He would be thinking of me separated from the company and probably at the mercy of goblins doing whatever tortures his mind could think of. He would think of me being hurt, unable to get back to the safety of his companions. I would be somewhere so far removed from where he could protect me. 

How much these thoughts must have haunted him in Rivendell and all along the road... 

I fancied I understood what he'd been thinking of back then but I realized as I cowered in the darkness that Thorin hadn't thought of me being a burden while somewhere surrounded by his company. No, Thorin imagined me _here_ , right here where I was at this very moment. All alone and without anyone nearby to protect me. For each moment he allowed himself to care about me, he would have always seen me here in this darkness where he could not follow.

I stood up and started to move along the cave's wall. 

I had to get back to him if only to show him that I could take care of myself and persevere when I had to. I was a Hobbit and we were made of tougher stuff than all the Big Folk gave us credit for. I wouldn't be a burden to him or his nephews and certainly not the rest of the company. I would find my strength as Fili said I would and I would do it with each small step by small step along in the darkness.

Fearful but resolved to my new courage, I made my way along the passage; limping with my newest wound and trying to keep my breathing under control because of the ache in my ribs. I followed the wall until I felt the rough surface suddenly curve away from me. I stopped in my uncertainty, unwilling to move forward without the wall for fear of what it meant. I didn't want to walk off some huge cliff out of hastiness. 

Holding up my sword for any bit of light in the darkness, I squinted and leaned as far as I could in any direction and saw that while the wall continued on, I was actually at an opening. I had been wandering through a passage way that had unknowingly led up. I must have been making my way down ever since where I was now looked to be some sort of underground cavern.

I didn't want to make a sound to see how large it was just in case of anything hiding in the dark but if I stopped for a moment and really allowed myself a chance to feel it, I was sure that I could feel the sensation of a faint tickling behind my ears. The sound of water. I stepped away from the wall, shaky and slow because I was still unsure of what was in front of me and kept moving forward until I felt the sharp frigid chill of water. 

I startled back out of shock but made sure not to step too heavily considering the last time I had done so I injured myself. I knelt down by the edge of the water so that I could look at it with my sword and lifted it up higher, my eyes focusing on the dim glow of it seen even feet from me. Was I standing next to an underground lake? 

I went still. I felt my ears twitch.

The faint tickling of water but ... there was something else out there.

I stared out into the darkness and I knew I felt something out there. The hair on my arms stood up and I held my breath. It was so slight but the more I focused on it, the more I could feel the faint sensation of a prickle on my fingers. Something was alive out there and it was making a noise that my ears could interpret into its very own unique sensation.

Whatever it was though, it was such a quiet creature. It was making pains to keep quiet, the faint prickle of my fingers the only indication that I knew for sure that something was indeed out there. Had I been without my Ear Touch, I knew I wouldn't have been able to confirm if it were something or just another trick of the dark.

I kept myself still because I didn't want it to necessarily find me. My sword was like a pinpoint in the darkness for anything that was accustomed to the shadows but I would willingly abandon the weapon if it meant whatever it was down here was attracted to that instead of to me. I kept still nonetheless because I didn't know what I would do if such a creature decided that it was an enemy of mine.

The prickle suddenly became more pronounced until I unconsciously rubbed my fingers together to try and will away the sensation a little. It was still faint but the pin and needles feeling was not an easy sensation to ignore, especially if it were to grow in intensity. Whatever the creature was that made the sound was coming closer... 

“Bless us and splash us, my precious! That's a meaty mouthful!”

Not coming closer! Came closer! I whirled around in surprise, shocked by the sight of a creature now mere feet from me and looking to be quite similar to my height! I wanted to jump away from it but if I backed up, I would be in the water and if I went forward, I would be within arm's reach of the creature. It was a ... My eyes squinted in the darkness, it wasn't a goblin. My sword maintaining its faint glow proved that. What was it? Whatever it was, it was pale, terribly skinny and bony, and with eyes so round and wide that I felt my heart race just from the sight of them. 

They reminded me of the scary monsters from the fairy tale books my Mum used to show me that had creatures with huge eyes so that they could see in the dark. The creature in front of me looked at me, an excited look in its eyes and a wide expression on its face. “What's it got in its handses, _gollum_!”

I dropped my sword and scrambled to pick it back up.

No longer needing to hide or hold back, its voice was clear, almost loud considering that one would usually want to whisper in the depths of darkness. Its voice prickled along my arms, confusing my grip on the sword and making me ball my other hand into a fist. On the last exclamation of what must have been its name, a hoarse cough of _gollum_ , I felt a stab of numbness prickle along my fingers. It was that numbness that made me drop my sword in the first place.

“Um, it's a sword, a blade that was made by the High Elves.”

Gollum looked at me almost like I was sure how I looked at him, a strange and unusual sight, a sight he never before seen; he came closer but he did so cautiously, as if he were worried that I would be frightened off or provoked enough to attack him. He was playing it slowly for both our sakes. He was hunched on his knees, his body easily moving along as he took in the sight of me and my sword, large eyes darting between what I held in my hand and my face, assessing the threat of which was worst.

His face almost took on a friendly look to it and I startled back because I wasn't even sure what to make of such a face. “So, it's got an Elvish blade.” His hand reached out and I stayed still, my hand clenched around the sword so that the prickle would not make me drop it again; I didn't know what he would do with those long fingers but when I felt his touch on my skirt, I almost wanted to slap him away.

I stayed my hand just because I didn't want to appear threatening. I didn't want to give Gollum a reason to think of me as an enemy. Gollum looked like he had a wiry strength to him, limbs giving the appearance of hidden potential if only the need to present itself showed. His fingers trailed along my skirt before tugging it a little, lifting it to sniff at it. “But it's not an Elfs.” 

The prickle continued, his voice a strange mixture of sensation and curiosity. “What is it, precious?” His hand became bolder, abandoning my skirt entirely and going for my waist; I pointed my sword in his direction, making him stop and understand that his touch wasn't going to be wanted there. The expression on his face stilled my hand from going any further though. He understood and moved off to the side where I would not easily be able to see him; my instinct was to turn to face him but his hand running along my back stopped me. I was still as those long fingers traced along the fabric of my jacket, when they curved downward to my lower back and then squeezed at the meatier part of my side.

“What is it?” He asked, baffled.

I turned around to face him finally, watching as his eyes trailed along the lines of my body and his hand pressed again to my waist. I wanted to stop him again but this time the thoughtful expression made me allow his touch, if only to lessen his curiosity. “My name is Bilbo Baggins.”

He stopped, looking up at me, a wondering expression, “Bagginses? What is a Bagginses, precious?” 

The prickle of his voice made my fingers ache but it wasn't exactly causing me pain. I wasn't sure if Gollum wanted to hurt me or just study me. He seemed content to poke and prod at me as if I were the first new creature he had seen in a lifetime. I stayed still and allowed his fingers to push at me but whenever his touch got too intimate, I used my sword to once more back him away. “I'm a Hobbit from the Shire.”

His face lit up at that and I was startled to think that maybe he knew of what I was or where I came from, “We've seen Goblinses, and fishes, and batses before but never a Hobbitses!” His excitement made my hands numb and once more I dropped the sword. 

“Can't Hobbitses hold its Elvish blade?”

“I can hold it just fine!” I responded back defensively as I took up my weapon again, backing away from him but he was quick to follow me, slow so that I knew he meant no harm but again I felt his hands touching me. I wondered if the reason he was so curious was not because he'd not seen a Hobbit before or just not seen a female in a long time? I blushed as his fingers found the curve of my breasts and I backed away from him again, this time pointing my sword at his neck, “I don't want any trouble! Just... keep back!”

I knew my breathing was becoming harder to find, knew that I was starting to become scared being alone with Gollum. “Trouble? Hobbitses is in trouble?”

“Well, considering that I am lost, yes, it's a bit accurate to say that I am in a sort of trouble. I would like to get unlost as soon as possible if you know the way?”

Gollum looked at me, those big eyes of his really just wandering over my face before he smiled at me with a mouth nearly missing all his teeth, “Ooh, we knows! We know safe paths for the Hobbitses.” 

He pointed out into the darkness, his excitement making his voice loud again and making my hands go numb. It was only through sheer will alone that I kept my fingers locked around my sword, not at all willing to let it drop an inch this time. It wouldn't do to really give Gollum any clue as to why I kept dropping my sword.

“Praps ye sits here and chats with it a bitsy? We likes riddles so if it sits here and plays, we would show the nice little Hobbitses the way in the dark.”

I stayed quiet, going over in my mind just how bad it would be to engage in such a game with a creature like Gollum. On one hand, if I were to stay and play the game with Gollum, he would show me the way out. On the other hand, if I didn't play, he would... what? Probably try to kill me? Already I was still trying to figure out whether or not he was a friend of the goblins or even just a random enemy, or strangely enough, a friend... 

But on the _other_ other hand, how hard would it be to play such a game with him? He looked to be this grimy creature that must have lived down in the dark for far too long and really, any riddle I gave him about the outside world would probably just go over his head. 

“Fair enough.” 

I decided that playing the game would be better than wandering around in the dark by myself, also considering that if I refused and decided to go off on my own that I would undoubtedly be followed by a curious Gollum, who most likely _did_ want to kill me before eating me. I was determined to show my good faith to the creature in front of me, sitting down on a nearby rock and setting my sword across my lap so that I wouldn't be bathed in darkness. I watched as Gollum seemed to light up in happiness over my want to play, jumping on a nearby rock and sitting back on his toes again.

“You go first.”

I prompted, just because I didn't at all have time to think of a riddle so soon at the start of the game and because listening to Gollum's question would give me an accurate depiction of where his knowledge stood as compared to mine. 

“What has roots as nobody sees  
Is taller than trees,  
Up, up it goes,  
And yet never grows?”

His voice prickled along my fingers, making me unconsciously rub at the skin, trying to knead away the creepy sensation. Even as I listened to his entire riddle, I knew the answer as soon as Gollum spoke the second line, already having heard such this particular one from my Dad. I was excited because I was in my element now - a test of cleverness- and because Gollum lived in a mountain and asked me a question about a mountain, I figured him for dull. 

“Easy! Mountain, yes?”

Instantly, his wide eyes turned on me, suddenly dark and cold. I gripped the hilt of my sword because I was not going to take any chances with any creature, no matter how friendly it may have looked only moments before. “Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, my precious?” 

I was nervous now because Gollum's voice prickled along my fingers more painfully, making me worry if I had been right in thinking that he was Goblin friend. I breathed deeply, trying to keep myself calm and focused the way Dwalin told me to be but the more Gollum seemed to sneer at me, the more I wanted to bolt. “If it asks us, and we don't answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We show it the way out.” My hands started to hurt with the prickly sensation, “If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we then eats it whole.”

I stood up from my seat on the rock and drew my sword, making sure that Gollum understood that if we were to continue along with our game that he would definitely need to keep his distance from me. No more touching, no more curiosity. No more anything! I wouldn't let him come any closer to me if I could help it. I would not allow myself to be killed down here by the likes of such a thing!

“All right!”

I would ask Gollum a riddle that the underground loving bastard wouldn't be able to guess. If his opening riddle had been about a mountain, then how would he fare about anything outside under the sun? 

“An eye in a blue face  
Saw an eye in a green face.  
“That eye is like to this eye”  
Said the first eye,   
“But in low place   
Not in high place.”

Gollum looked puzzled by that one. He jumped down off his rock and muttered to himself, over and over, growing more frustrated as the seconds ticked by until he suddenly stopped. His eyes turned back to me and he approached closer, “Sun on the daisies it means, it does.”

I was surprised that Gollum knew the answer to my riddle since it seemed like he hadn't been above ground but it appeared from how confidently he spoke the answer, there was more to him than meets the eye. I conceded and nodded that he guessed right, following him with my eyes when he nearly slunk back off into the darkness.

“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,   
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.  
It lies behind stars and under hills,  
And empty holes it fills.  
It comes first and follows after,   
Ends life, kills laughter.”

My eyes shot off to look into the black of the world around us. I suddenly understood how the librarian elf felt in Rivendell when I asked him if we were in the library even whilst being surrounded by books. I hoped that this was some sort of trick question because the thought that Gollum just asked me a riddle about the very thing we both stood in, was a little too much for me. He looked at me expectantly and I huffed, “Darkness.”

He growled, aggravated by how callous I was being in the face of the very real danger that his presence really should have impressed upon me. I felt confident enough that with my sword at the ready that he wouldn't want to go toe to toe with me but even knowing that, I was injured and getting away or even fighting in his territory made me think twice. When he came at me like he was frustrated, I swung my sword ungracefully and kept him back. 

“A box without hinges, key or lid,   
yet golden treasure inside is hid.”

I needed time to think of a really hard riddle that would stump Gollum; in his path, I threw an easy riddle that was worded differently to see if maybe something like that would hinder how he perceived the question. If it did, I would use a harder riddle and change the wording around until it was near incomprehensible.

The reaction to my riddle was almost instant, Gollum reducing himself down to sputters and nonsensical ramblings that had my hands prickle painfully until he was nearly shouting at himself. “Well?!” 

I prompted because I was not content to just sit around in the dark all day (or night) long and I would need some sort of answer from him to figure out if I won or he won! “Its nasty! Give us a chance!”

I huffed and gave him a few more moments, just wanting him to answer because I needed to get back to the upper levels of the mountain so that I could find Thorin and the others. I needed to get back where the air was fresher and being in the darkness was making me even more skittish than I normally was. Gollum was still making all manner of noises and more than once I had to reaffirm my grip on my sword because of how my fingers numbed from his higher tones. 

“EGGSES!”

I cursed because I was so sure that he wouldn't have been able to get that given how much time he was taking on the riddle. He rounded on me, his eyes starting to glimmer with an eerie green glow that put me on edge and made me want to back up.

“Alive without breath,   
As cold as death;   
Never thirsty, ever drinking,   
All in mail never clinking.”

I didn't know that one. I had never even heard that one before! I turned around in my spot, looking out into the vast darkness of the cavern, staring into inky depths, willing my heart to stop racing because I had to buckle down and think of the answer but I didn't even know where to start with this one. Alive without breath; cold as death... 

I bit at my lip. Alive without breath but as cold as death? Yet it was alive but cold like death? 

I panicked. I clenched a fist full of my skirt in my hand. It was still torn from where Thorin ripped it. Bastard. I pinched myself for getting distracted and tapped my uninjured foot. All in mail never clinking? I felt my face knit in concentration before I felt the creepy feeling of fingers near my neck. Gollum's hands were actually so close to me and I was terrified by how quietly he moved! 

In my surprise, I whirled around, swinging my sword because I needed to get his hands away from me but the pain in my chest and my foot from the sudden movement threw me off balance. I fell back into the water, grateful that I only fell a little ways off the shore but I shot back up and sputtered from the chill and from the slimy feeling of what I felt down in its dark depths.

“FISH!”

I shouted it out in shock but even thinking of the riddle then, all the details clicked into place when I felt the slimy weight of the creature around my fingers. Gollum, who had only backed up a step to avoid the tip of my sword, looked furious that I had guessed the answer to his riddle when it appeared that I had been thoroughly stumped. He must also have been upset at the fact that he had unwittingly played a part in it. He growled, picking up a rock. 

“Last chance then.” I edged away from the water but still needing to keep my distance from the creature in front of me. His voice was numbing my hands, obvious in his frustration and anger. I was beginning to even worry that maybe Gollum wouldn't keep his end of the bargain to help me out of the mountain. 

“Ask us.”

I whipped around, still unknowing what kind of riddle I would ask him. I racked my brain for some sort of inspiration, looking around the cavern in the hopes that the darkness could help me think of a question good enough to actually fool Gollum, who was actually quite skilled at this game. I fidgeted and kneaded the fabric of my skirt and set my hand on my hip to try and help myself think.

“Ask us!” 

My hand brushed along something in my pocket, the prickly numbness in my fingers so pronounced that I couldn't even feel what was exactly inside it. I tried to think back about what was inside my pocket but I couldn't remember. “What is that in my pocket?”

My eyes widened because I hadn't meant to say that out loud but however quiet it was, Gollum heard it and hissed, “Not fair!” He threw down the rock angrily, shouting at me, “It isn't fair! It's against the rules! Asking us what it's got in its pocketses!”

Before I could try and correct Gollum and perhaps use the misunderstanding as another means to buy some time to think of a real riddle, Gollum continued, “It must give us three guesses, precious!”

“Very well! Guess away!”

If he were willing to accept such an outrageous question in a game of riddles, I would gladly accept it. Even I wasn't sure what was in my pocket anymore but I knew that whatever Gollum could guess would not be correct. 

“Handses!” I showed him how my hands were already out in the open, one holding onto the sword and the other at my waist. “Wrong.”

“Knife!” I looked at my sword in my hand, my eyes darting between that and Gollum. He hissed and hit himself, “Shut up!” He didn't need to be told that the answer was wrong because why would I have a knife in my pocket if I had a sword in my hand? I watched as the creature sputtered and hissed at himself, mumbling and grumbling and just all around making a bother of himself. He was in some state of fury by what I could tell from the numbness of my hands, twisting on the floor and throwing things up in a flurry to try and think of something that I would have in my pocket.

“Well?”

“String, or nothing!” My hands were prickling something awful now and I needed to keep both hands on my sword handle just to be sure that I would not drop it. Now was hardly the time to be dropping any weapon if Gollum's state was anything to go by. “Ha! Two guesses and both of them wrong!”

Technically, as I was the victor of the game, Gollum would be obliged to show me the way out of the cavern but with the way he had been acting, I no longer trusted him to keep his promise to me. Ever since his voice took on a more painful quality, I should have been more intent on separating us but now that I actually had a viable reason, I moved away and found the wall of the cave. The roughened texture comforted me only because it was familiar but I made sure to keep Gollum in my sights. I knew he was quick and near silent when he wanted to be. “Well? What about your promise? I want to go. You must show me the way out of here.”

“Did we say so, precious? Show us what it's got in its nasty little pocketses first. Not string, precious, but not nothing. What has it got?”

“What does that matter! You lost! A promise is a promise!”

“Cross it is, precious.” I stayed where I was, not wanting to lose the wall if I needed to suddenly get away. The air around the two of us was thick with tension. Gollum obviously took losing the game harshly and who was I to deny such a feeling to a creature who most likely was only used to winning such games? I watched from a good few steps away as he reached around to something at his waist, feeling for whatever before his eyes went wide. He stilled in what looked to be denial before turning around to look at his waist. What was happening? 

“Where is it!? Precious! Where is it!?” 

“Where's what?”

“Mustn't ask us! Not its business!”

His body twisted in my direction, his hands still trying desperately to search for something that should have been in his pocket. When he gave up with that, he went to the cavern floor, scooping dirt and throwing it and going to the water to splash it. What was he doing? I took a step back, feeling my anxiety rise as Gollum's voice prickled at my hand painfully. 

He paused, seemingly in great thought. He turned to look back at me, his eyes cold. “What has it got in its nassty little pocketses?”

My hands were numb. They were in pain.

"It stole it...”

I was in danger. I knew it as sure as I knew that I needed to get ready to run. When he screamed at me in a fury, I didn't hesitate. 

I ran.


	32. The Requirements of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo escapes from the Misty Mountains...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally was listening to Jennifer Lopez - Until it Beats No More while writing this.  
> I normally listen to soundtrack music because I can't write to lyrical songs but yeah, for some reason the Gollum chapters have been this crazy mix of music.
> 
> I swear, Skyfall, Taylor Swift, J-Lo, and every manner of pop star is the anthem of Gollum's life.

I ran along the very corridor that however long ago, I cowered in, too nervous to go on and too afraid for what would happen to me if I stopped.

I was terrified because I was being chased and I wasn't even sure where I was going; I knew that if I continued along the tunnel that I would eventually come back to the place where I had fallen but what else could I do? I had absolutely no idea where to go! 

I could hear Gollum behind me, hissing furiously, scrambling in that strange way he moved but I could not seem to shake him. Gollum knew the various ways through the tunnels better than I ever would and in the dark, he was better equipped still. Running from him, losing my breath and feeling the ache in my ribs and my foot, I knew that even if I ran into a thousand passages, he would find me. 

I could not escape.

I ran up the passageway, my feet scraping against rock and my hand every so often making contact with the wall just so that I could ascertain where I was in the giant mass of singular darkness. 

“Give it back to us!”

I didn't want to look back; I didn't want to see how close Gollum was to me. My fingers prickled and felt numb with his outrage and it was only by chance that I saw a hint of light reflect off the wall nearby. I ran to it, seeing that it was a passageway that veered off from the tunnel I went down before. I was in the unknown now, unable to see and needing to move quick enough that I couldn't actually keep track of the wall. If I were to fall off a cliff now or -Yavanna forbid- run into a dead end, I wouldn't even know until the last second. 

The path became jagged, twisting sharply in sharp angled lines that forced me to slow down only because whenever I had to suddenly move out of the way, my ribs would ache and make it hard to breathe. I looked back, hoping that my foot wasn't leaving a trail for Gollum to see but I couldn't be sure given how little I could see from my face to the ground below. I had to keep running. I had to escape. 

A second too late, my body bounced off a rocky wall, making me yelp in agony and twist away to clutch at my side. I dug my fingers into the rocky surface, coughing and groaning under the pain of it all. I looked up and used my hand to run along the wall, panicking when I saw that it was just a wall. I ran along it, “No, no, no, no, no, no!” 

I felt tears well up, I didn't want to cry but as I followed the surface of the wall, I couldn't see any sort of exit that I could use! It was just a wall and I was trapped! I hit the wall in frustration, still wishing in vain for the dead end to not be true, even as I refused to stop and scrambled along the wall.

My fingers dipped and I held my breath in the utter relief that maybe all was not lost. Bringing my sword around quickly, I saw that there was a narrow passageway that was a tight fit but with my choices, I would take it. I threw off my backpack, tossing it through the narrow opening and tried to squeeze through. 

Oh! You have got to be kidding me! Had I really jinx myself earlier? I tried to move but the more I tried, the more I realized that I was truly well and honestly stuck! I couldn't breathe given the way I was wedged in the opening and even trying to tug my vest did little good. I tried to suck in, cursing all the plates of mushrooms I had eaten in Rivendell and how the Hobbit gossiping circle said that copious amounts of sex made a lass gain weight!

“It's ours.”

I looked up from my struggle to get unstuck and saw Gollum prowl towards me, a sure grace proving that he could see everything just fine with those eyes of his. Fear chilled its way down my body, making me struggle anew, cursing how it was my buttons and my fat stomach that were responsible for getting me caught in the first place. I couldn't even cut them off either due to the fact that my sword was in my other hand and that hand was on the wrong side of the passage!

So panicking aside, I was stuck.

“It's ours!”

I sucked in a great gulp of air, wincing from the pain in my side, and jerked myself over, trying desperately to move in the gap and get free! I felt my buttons give, just a small sign, but it was enough for me to try again. I jerked my body, not even caring anymore if I would hurt myself further and with a great pop of buttons of my vest, I was slipping free and tumbling down. 

When I smacked down onto the ground, I cried out in pain and rolled over onto my knees in a ball, clutching at my side and breathing heavily. I didn't have time to exactly nurse my wounds though; Gollum would come in after me since he was much thinner than I was-  
What was that?  
A ring? The tiny gold ring that I picked up earlier. Had it fallen from my pocket? Pocket. My nasty little pocket...

The ring was what Gollum was desperately chasing me for?

Without thought at all as to what I was doing, I reached out for it, feeling it as it slid onto my finger. In the next second, Gollum jumped out from the gap but before I could do anything to try and defend myself, I watched in confusion as he simply passed me by and went on his way, cursing and growling.

“Thief!”

I stared wide eyed at his fast retreating form, going on through the tunnel despite the fact that I hadn't moved an inch from where I fell and rolled over. I got up quietly from my spot, slowly picking up my backpack and thinking that I needed to follow Gollum if I was to have any chance in getting out. Now that I was standing again, I looked around in wonder; no longer was the cave dark and unknowable but bright and wispy. What had happened? Everywhere I looked, the very surfaces seemed to be in a whirl of movement, a shaping of wind without air at all.

Sounds were muted, unable to be processed clearly, but there was something out there in the distance. Something that eluded my ears. I couldn't tell what it was with everything washing over my ears in a giant haze so I did what I had to do and followed on after Gollum. 

I had to escape and unwittingly, Gollum would once again help me. 

In the dark but surrounded in the bright and wispy world I now found myself, I followed Gollum, careful to keep my distance from the muttering creature but sure to keep him in my sights. On we went through the tunnels, him leading me up and up until I swore I could smell the air freshen around us. He really was going back to a way where I could escape. I felt it was a wild gamble when I first thought of it but Gollum was too angry to see his folly. The entire time before when he chased me, he had been able to keep up with me and yet now I was no where in sight. 

As I crept up behind him, I listened to the things he muttered to himself, arguing back and forth about goblins and back doors and how the passages in the dark were dangerous without his precious. My ears perked in curiosity when he started to talk about what would happen should a goblin actually have his precious and what would happen if they were to put it on. What was this ring? I looked at it even as I followed along after him, the glint of cool gold shining up at me and making me understand that what Gollum spoke of was actually something I already knew of from old tales. 

Mention of magic rings lived in the tales of old that were in books that could be found practically falling apart from age even on my shelves. What were the chances of actually finding one down in the dark? I understood why Gollum wanted to hunt me down for it but that didn't change my resolve to leave with it.

On and on, we went back up the tunnels, Gollum counting his way as he turned left and right and scrambled up the path. I eagerly followed, careful to keep quiet until I saw him stop and quickly followed suit. He looked up and peered into what looked like a cross passage and looking at my sword, I realized that it glowed brightly now. We were very near to the goblins and most likely this was why Gollum hesitated. “This is it! This is the way, precious, but we dursn't go in. Goblinses down there. Lots of goblinses.”

Almost as soon as he spoke, he was shot back and hid behind a rock. I stumbled a little to keep my distance but Gollum didn't seem to notice any sound I made. What had scared him? What was he hiding from? I heard some sort of shouting in the distance; a pressure on my shoulder, faint but there, a scratching on my cheek. I closed my eyes but the world that I was in made it nearly impossible to be sure of what I heard. 

“Come on! This way!” I opened my eyes and wanted to shout out because of the familiarity of the voice I heard but I kept myself quiet. I looked ahead and actually felt relief in my bones, exhaustion washing over me even as my adrenaline swirled in my veins. It was Gandalf! Gandalf! How was Gandalf actually here? No matter why how he was there, I was so happy to see the Grey Wizard and when I saw the dwarves all passing him in single file line, I nearly cried. There was everyone! “Right, good!”

Gandalf looked once more down the tunnel and I moved to follow him; I stopped myself before I forgot where I was. I glanced at Gollum, who still crouched behind the rock. I should have just cried out for Gandalf but there was no telling what the creature would do when given such a situation as the wizard and I surrounding him. I kept quiet and watched Gandalf run off, leaving me alone in the tunnel with Gollum, who inconveniently still blocked my path.

I parted from the wall, trying to be quiet and see if I could slip by but the second I did so, Gollum tensed and his head turned to face me. He didn't see me, obviously, but he crept closer and nosed the air like he could try and sniff out my scent. I grew furious with the thought that Gollum would once again block my path and keep me from the dwarves and Gandalf. I had to get away! I had to get out and I had to escape for this horrible dark place that would surely drive me mad!

I knew what Thorin would do if such an obstacle were in his path and I knew what any of the other dwarves would do if they were to find themselves in the same situation as I. They were hardened warriors with weapons and while I was not a warrior, I was still with a weapon. No, it wouldn't be a fair fight but who was I to care about such things? Gandalf had brought me along on the quest as a burglar and since when did burglars care for something as silly as fair? 

The choice was obvious before me. I had to kill Gollum. Already by now, the dwarves would've been shouting at me to have already done so. Yes, I had to do it. I was quiet as I drew my sword up, knowing only in theory what it would take to get Gollum out of my way. A quick swipe, a quick stab; it was already something I was used to seeing with the company.

...and yet, Gollum had every right to block my path. I stole something from him and until he realized that fact, he hadn't actually tried to kill me. Should a detail like that matter to me? I found myself torn between the fairness of such a question. Should I have bothered to even care about my indecision? Thorin, and even the brothers, wouldn't have hesitated to cut down the miserable creature in front of them if it meant getting to safety...

But Gollum was indeed miserable. What he was, was not so removed from my knowledge. Just mere moments ago, I told myself that I would go mad down in the dark and what was Gollum if not that? I wondered how long he had been in the darkness, all alone, without anything to comfort him or provide him any sort of companionship.

I let my sword drop to my side. I pitied this thing in front of me, even as he still searched for me to try and kill me. No doubt, Thorin and the others would still be willing to strike down such a pitiable creature but I found that I wasn't sure what type of person I would need to become if I were to kill Gollum. I was a Hobbit through and through. I was as soft as Thorin said, gentle as Dwalin first stated, but I didn't understand what could make the dwarves actually capable of something that I considered murder.

No matter what the company said about me -gentle or soft or whatever else- I knew that I didn't want to be that person. I was content with the fact that I would be considered soft and useless if it meant Gollum's blood was kept from my hands. I resolved to find the Hobbit way to end all this. 

I didn't care anymore about the consequences. 

I took a loud step back and ran towards the passageway, leaping up and over Gollum's head. I knew from the noise that I made and from the twist of air around him that Gollum would most likely be able to detect me but I didn't care anymore. I had to get away. 

Somehow or other, I felt a hand on my ankle; Gollum had thrown himself back and caught me! 

Down to the ground, we tumbled in a pile and I felt that wiry strength as his hands went for me, “Thief, thief, thief!! Baggins!” Pain in my side exploded fresh and violent, stealing my breath away. Fingernails clawed at me and ripped fabric and I shouted in fury because I would not let this bastard creature of the dark beat me now! Not when I was resolved to my freedom! I kicked and punched him with my fist, brought the hilt of my sword down on him and yet nothing deterred him from me! 

Even as his hands scratched, fists balling to beat on me, knocking wind from my lungs and making me curl in on myself, I twisted around and gripped the strap of my backpack that I dropped in our tumble. With a shout of determination, I swung it down with enough force to startle Gollum away from me though it was for only half a second. It was more than enough, and with it, my legs flew out and I kicked him right where his balls were. 

Gollum flew back from me, clutching at his groin in pain, and I got up in a mad dash, grabbing my sword and just abandoning my backpack before taking off in the direction that Gandalf and the company went. I recognized the sound of Gollum's voice in my ears, shouting and hissing at me that he would hate me forever but I didn't even care. In the distance was the glow of the sun beyond a doorway and I raced towards it, ignoring the various pain that I still felt in my body. I knew that I was in a sorry state, clothes ripped and bloodied and bruised but I didn't care anymore. 

I was free. I escaped. 

As the light of the sun washed over me, I laughed with the realization that when I caught up to the dwarves and told them the story of my escape, Dwalin would be proud of me. I had performed without even thinking his two requirements before an enemy could actually think to kill you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DWARF REUNION NEXT CHAPTER!! WOOT!!!


	33. Out of the Frying Pan...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo reunites with the dwarves...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, Azog isn't in this chapter. This was meant to actually be the beginning part of it but for some reason, it turned out longer. So, yeah, the emotional stuff is in this chapter and the actiony bits are in the next one for an easier, shorter read.
> 
> Azog's chapter, "...Into the Fire." will be up as soon as i finish writing it.

My entire body protested the treatment that it was being put under; every bone ached and my legs felt weak even as I kept them going. I couldn't stop even though I desperately wanted to. I needed to catch up with the dwarves and Gandalf and I had to keep going until I did so. Everything hurt though and more than once, I slowed down just so that I could regain my breath. 

I wasn't even sure how far I ran down the hillside in the strange wisp of a world that the magic ring caste all around me but when I felt I could finally run no more and my poor abused ribs literally could not take another step, I slowed and stopped and went to a nearby tree. 

I gasped and inhaled deep gulps of breath, each intake a fresh stab of pain, sweat pouring down my back and I shook from the effort it took just to keep standing. I coughed when I failed to catch my breath and when I looked around and saw that I was alone, I finally seemed to relax fully and put my sword back in its sheathe.

“Is this the other side of the mountains?”

I looked around and even from the direction I came from, I no longer saw the distant doorway of the goblin hold that I had escaped from. All I saw was bushes and trees and the mountains looming from beyond where I stood. The sky was bright white above me; daytime, and given where we were when we were captured by the goblins... I found myself thinking almost shockingly, how _long_ had I been in the dark?

I pushed off the tree, unwilling to stop for long but the second I did so, I fell to my knees. I was starved, my stomach growling in protest to missed meals. I looked around, trying to gauge how much time had passed while I was underground but with the way the world hazed in a show of air and washed out color, I could barely tell what time of day it was. All I knew was that the sun was out and given all that happened to me recently, I felt that was well enough to be thankful for.

Awkwardly, I rose back up on my feet and used the light to finally get a good look at my injured foot; a cut that still bled but it wasn't so deep that it would need stitches. I ignored it for now and pressed onward, determined to find the dwarves just because I couldn't tolerate being alone anymore. 

I couldn't jog or run anymore, my ribs throbbing painfully preventing me from doing anything more than a hobbled walk but I kept on going. I felt miserable and I needed a bath. I yearned for a drink of water to chase the dry, grating feeling in my throat that I couldn't ignore any longer.

A sensation against my shoulder stopped me in my tracks, unwilling to take another step forward until I knew if whatever caused the sensation was a friend or foe. In the state I was in, I could take no chances. I stayed still and listened, trying to will the voices sharper through the haze of the magic world; I felt something that was like a brush against my cheek, a sensation in my mouth, maybe a touch along my side. I couldn't be sure. 

If I wanted to know for sure, I would need to approach whatever it was making the sounds. 

I was still unwilling to move until I remembered rather dumbly that I still wore a magic ring that made me invisible. Nearly wanting to smack myself for forgetting such an obvious fact, I cautiously slipped forward. Sloped away down a rocky path where the ground dipped low and trees and bushes gave adequate cover to recuperate, I found the dwarves talking with Gandalf. Off to the side, I spotted the small figure of Balin on watch, his ears attentive and his eyes constantly moving the line of the trees for any sign of trouble.

Relief flooded my body and I wanted to collapse again on the ground; I crept by the master watchman himself and came around the side, just happy to see the sight of the dwarves and their messy, mangy hair and burly forms pumped up wide with leather and fur. 

How long I had taken for granted the sight of them and how happy I was to see them again!

As I approached them, my hand on the ring around my finger just about to take it off and rejoin them, I stopped when I noticed that they were arguing about something. Their voices were steadily growing louder, frustration and annoyance coming through clearly despite not being able to feel the sensations of it on my skin. They must have felt like I did, mangled and beaten from the lack of sun and meals, though with the addition of a goblin party that they needed to have dealt with. 

I wasn't exactly sure what made me keep the ring on but my hand stilled on the golden band as I approached the group until I was standing close to Thorin. He looked utterly spent, tired and exhausted in a way I wasn't familiar with given everything we had been through recently. Even Dwalin who stood next to him looked tired, keeping quiet as Gandalf huffed about this and that.

“After all she is my friend! I feel responsible for her. How could you have lost her?”

They were talking about me? Obviously, they would be talking about me. I was the only one not present and how hadn't Gandalf and the others noticed that fact before? I kept still, my breathing quieting even though the company couldn't see me and yet, recent fear bred in me the worry that even if I made the slightest move, they would be able to find me like Gollum did.

Unconsciously, my fingers twisted the ring around my finger as I listened to their conversation, confusion marring with curiosity over what they would say about me while I was unknowingly present.

“I think I saw her slip away when they first collared us?”

I looked at Nori, whose voice barely brushed against my nose because of the magic ring. I watched the group as they huffed about in exasperation, tired and drained. Now that I looked at each of them closely, I saw that they were messy and worse for the wear but none of them were injured. They all looked exhausted but none of them were in worse shape than I. While that was relieving, the tension within the group kept me from relaxing. Thorin himself stayed quiet, his eyes looking at his nephews before trailing back up towards the mountain.

“See, we didn't lose her!” I looked over to Dori before Gloin grumbled and muttered, “Why couldn't she just stick to us and stay close to her friends?”

I didn't want to feel offended by what he said but given all that happened to me recently, I bristled at the very idea that on top of the insanity that occurred after falling out of the tunnel and being swept up by goblins, I was supposed to have stayed close and followed without any trouble at all! I wanted to shout at Gloin and tell him that I tried to follow them but had been attacked! 

Irritation made them tired and exhaustion made them careless and rash; they reminded me of children who threw temper tantrums, wanting to sleep but fighting every step of the way. “Without sense that one, wandering off alone!” Dori tutted, his older brother instincts kicking in even as he fawned over Ori, who brushed off his hands like he was embarrassed and annoyed that Dori couldn't leave him be for just a minute. 

My temper flared at Dori's insensitive tone, tears welling up in my eyes because the dwarves had not even an inkling of what I just went through to get back to them! 

“If we've got to go back now, then drat her, I say!”

Even as I looked up, a few of the other dwarves followed suit. We all stared at Gloin, surprise and alarm being directed at him by each and every one of us. Careful Balin who would never have dreamt to ever disregard his duty of taking watch seriously, looked back with an eyebrow raised while Kili practically glared daggers at the red haired dwarf. His hand was the only thing that held his brother back, the blonde dwarf red faced and ready to tussle with the shorter dwarf. Even Dori who spoke ill of me moments before looked at the dwarf as if he were strange. Dwalin looked almost as if he wanted to pummel the dwarf for saying such a thing while in the presence of Thorin.

Thorin himself looked to bristle with annoyance and borderline anger, finally taking his eyes off the mountain about to yell something before Gandalf rounded on the red headed dwarf, irritation warring with the need to understand that the dwarves were tired and not in their right minds, “I brought her, and I don't bring things that are of no use! Either you help me go look for her, or I go and leave you here!” 

The company was divided about what to do or say given the situation and the gravity of what the wizard said; obviously they were unwilling to let the wizard leave them there by themselves but there was a real danger in going back into the mountain to look for me. My fingers twisted along the ring as I listened, “Why ever did you abandon her?!”

Thorin suddenly rose up from where he had been quietly standing, observing his company. I watched him quick as a snake as he lashed out at Gandalf, his voice an angry brush against my arms, “We did not abandon her! Wise and knowing as you are, you know what goblins would do to her! I kept her from them and if what Nori says is true, she saw her chance and took it!”

I prided myself on being proper and being someone who could take a nasty comment and just quietly let it slid. Yes, what Thorin said was technically in my defense but just as easily as he defended his actions, his tone turned it around and blamed me for yet another inconvenience that his company had to deal with. My hands clenched into fists when I saw that everyone seemed to agree with Thorin. 

“If she is worth half as much as you say, then she is smart enough to know to be long gone from here.” 

Memories of days past came back to me. 

The darkness of the mountain kept me from thinking of it because of the danger but now that I was safe again, I could not dismiss it any longer. Thorin's attitude towards me had been foul, steadily growing worse for whatever reason he felt necessary. I remembered how for days I had been trying to keep up, trying not to let his words bother me to the point where I wanted to give up. When I did give up, I corrected the mistake and searched for a way back to them. 

I thought back to all the times where Thorin nagged at me and yelled. Times where I felt useless and small. Ashamed of my even being a Hobbit. 

“We will not be seeing our Hobbit again.”

I could take no more given what I went through to get back to them, to get back to the brothers and our leader. I didn't want to take anymore considering how much I thought of them and how much I felt I had been trying to make Thorin proud with how I handled myself down in the tunnels. I wasn't going to be the proper Hobbit anymore! I ripped off the ring from my finger and registered the collective gasps of shock on the dwarves' faces for half a second before I shoved Thorin with all the strength I could muster.

I didn't care that it wasn't fair and that his back was turned away from me but as I saw him topple down to the ground in a whirl of fabric and garbled surprised noises, I felt a satisfaction rise up in me so powerful that I could hardly stop myself from yelling at that startled face as it whipped back to look at me, “Confusticate you all!” 

I shouted it in anger, my face twisted into an ugly expression even as Thorin quickly found his feet again with Dwalin reaching down to help him back up. Everyone else stared back blankly, Gloin even giving me an extra birth of space. Gandalf himself was hardly phased at all by my behavior and happily exclaimed, “Bilbo Baggins! I have never been so glad to see-” 

He didn't get to finish as I interrupted him, an angry shout coming from my mouth even as I pushed against Thorin's chest angrily, “You have no idea what I've been through to find you! I was alone! I was scared!” I pushed at him, his balance unable to be swayed even by my strength. Eventually I just balled up my fists and hit uselessly at him, shouting all the while he took in my state, bloodied and beaten and exhausted. When I went to him him again, he grabbed me and held tight. “What happened to you!?”

His voice raced over me, worry and outrage washing over me in fingers down my arms. I wanted to fight my way out of his grip just because I was still upset and I didn't want to comforted by him or any of the dwarves anymore! I wanted to slap them all but my ribs hurt from my exertion and I winced even as I tried to pull away. Thorin's eyes narrowed, his voice softly whispering, “You're hurt?”

I looked at him tiredly, just wanting to collapse and cry but I pushed him away from me, “I tried to get back to you! I fell off the bridge after being attacked by a goblin! I didn't wander off!”

I glared at Dori but I wasn't able to see his reaction due to the brothers crowding around me happily, Fili's hand on my head, brushing back the hair from my face so that he could see me, “How on earth did you get by the goblins?”

“Bilbo, we thought you lost!” 

Kili hugged me tightly and finally every bit of tension seemed to melt away for the dwarves; their burglar was back and they wouldn't need to go back into the mountains. Being reunited with them and hearing how happy they were at my arrival seemed to wash away my own frustrations. I laughed tiredly, on the verge of crying. Their voices were familiar pinches on my bottom and it was so relieving just to feel them again. When the frustration left me fully, I realized that I was just so happy to be reunited with the dwarves again.

I missed them so terribly and I hugged Kili to me tightly, seeing his surprised look before he gingerly returned the gesture. Fili's hand on my back was comforting and I turned to look at the rest of the group, telling them in full detail what had happened to me since we were separated. They listened intently to how I wandered in the darkness, how I hurt my foot and though I had to stop for Oin to fuss over the wound, the others ushered him off so that I could finish.

When I told them of the events of Gollum, they listened closely for even they had never heard of such a creature and they were curious to know how I managed to keep him from immediately trying to kill me. I didn't tell them of the ring because overall it didn't seem very important for some reason. The game of riddles came as a shock but Gandalf and Balin seemed pleased by the prospect of me using such a means to negotiate my escape. After I told them of what happened after that, how Gollum had lost and tried to kill me, their faces fell and they grew angry.

I went on to tell them of how I ran away and got stuck while trying to slip away, motioning to my buttons on my vest and then how I fought for my freedom after I saw Gandalf and them pass me by in the tunnel. At the conclusion of my story, all of them went quiet before exploding in a roar of praise, friendly natured pats on my shoulder and even a rough push from Dwalin that made me wince, “Well done, laddie! Showed that bastard!”

I felt welcome and I felt like I made the dwarves proud for the first time. It wasn't like the time with the trolls where Gandalf saved us and I only helped. This was something I did completely on my own. Sure, they were still doubtful of what worth I would be against a dragon but at least they knew that I could at least hold my own against a creature the likes of Gollum. I smiled at them, laughing tiredly, happy to be there with them.

Now we had the rather interesting task ahead of us of what to do from there. Most of us looked to have lost our supplies and we were without food or water. It was not an easy place to just pick up from but Gandalf seemed to have some clue; already he was walking away and pointing into the distance. While some of the dwarves trailed after him, the brothers and Thorin stayed close to me, not wanting to move until I did so. Thorin's eyes found mine before he glanced at the brothers. 

“Regardless of all that happened, I want to know. Why did you come back?”

His voice trailed over my neck like an eager touch from a lover and I looked up at him, my eyes bright and my smile easy for the first time in ages. I knew he was asking me about why I felt the need to return to them when the last time we met I was determined to leave his company. In a way, I wanted to tell Thorin some long drawn out speech about why I felt I needed to help him and the other dwarves, but in all honesty, none of it even mattered right then. I said the truth without needing to be proper about it.

“I just couldn't think of anywhere else I wanted to be.”

It was the truth and in my entire time away from them, I never once thought of my comfy bed, or my books and I really just couldn't imagine going back to the Shire all the while knowing the dwarves fought for their own home.

Before Thorin could give me a reply to my answer, I heard a sound on the wind and turned my head, curious and wondering. I couldn't place where it came from but a second later, a large howl was in the air. 

The rest of the dwarves stopped around us, Gandalf looking back in the beginnings of apprehension. When I looked back at Thorin, his body was tense and his eyes searching the forest line. The sound I felt was familiar but I didn't want it to be. I recognized it but I hadn't felt it since before we were forced to rush into the safety of Rivendell. 

“Out of the frying pan...” Thorin looked around for what he knew to be danger but Gandalf was ushering us away, finishing his statement for him, "and into the fire... RUN!”

Thorin grabbed my hand and once again, I had to run.


	34. ...And into the Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double chapters as a birthday present to LilRed7503!
> 
> Also, I can't believe it but we're finally at the end of the movie! No more movie references for me so everything from this point on will be book and original ideas! OMG! 
> 
> I seriously can't believe that I managed this!

The sun was setting fast behind us as we ran.

I didn't think I had it in me to run anymore given how little ago I felt like I would collapse, but with the very real danger behind us, my body ignored the protests and ran ever on. My lungs burned, my foot stung, and my ribs groaned but I did not stop or slow down. We needed to get away.

“Go!” 

Thorin's hand was a steady, firm grip around my own, and despite the danger of the wargs closing in from behind us, I felt that as long as we stayed together – all of us – we would be able to get away like the time before. The dwarves around us weaved around rock and tree trunk, over low hanging branches and jumping off rocks. Fili and Kili were beside Thorin and I, weapons draw at the ready but none of us were willing to take a stand against what was chasing us. We were all too tired, all too exhausted and beaten down. We needed to run away and hide. 

Somebody shouted, a desperate cry. I couldn't tell who given the situation but someone did so, and looking back myself, I saw that the wargs were upon us. Nearly a pack of them scattered about the trees, running and jumping quickly to catch up with us. I heard their howls, the familiar sharp slice of pain on the skin behind my ears, and when the closest warg jumped for us, it missed Thorin and I only because of a dip where a rock had been. 

I nearly stumbled when we dropped down, Thorin's hand slipping from my own so that he could take his sword in both hands and defend against the warg that landed in front of us. The warg stuck quickly, jaws wide and ready to bite down but just as soon as it lunged for us, Thorin struck it down and the brothers finished it off. 

Even as they were preoccupied with one warg, another jumped over the rock above us and I caught the sight of its lightly colored brown fur before it turned back to me and readied itself to attack. Thorin and the others were still burdened with their warg, wresting their weapons from its thick pelt and bone. I was on my own. My eyes locked with its golden ones as it leapt straight for me. 

I reacted before I could even comprehend the action, my fingers pulling out my sword from its sheathe and holding it up just as the warg came at me. I wasn't prepared for the force behind the very act of the warg running itself on my blade but I lost my breathe when I was pushed back, feet scraping against the dirt of the forest floor until with a firm smack, I was pressed flat against the truck of a nearby tree.

It didn't move. It was dead.

I froze, unable to process that I had actually just killed something. My hands were still firmly on the hilt of my sword and I registered the sounds of the dwarves around me killing wargs who came too close but everything else was a blur. I killed a warg. I looked down at its fur and felt sick.

When I looked up and saw Thorin looking at me as if he couldn't make sense of me, I felt as if I could do nothing in response. He was surprised that I actually managed to defend myself but there was no time for any of It. We had to escape. I wanted to throw up. 

“Up into the trees!” 

We both heard Gandalf shout from a little ways away and I watched as Thorin repeated to the rest of us on the ground, his eyes going to the various members of his company to make sure that they were following orders. 

“Quickly!” Thorin told us before our eyes locked one last time, blue eyes mildly approving and sparing a quick nod. He took off then in the direction of the distant tall standing trees that Gandalf and the others disappeared off to. Acknowledgement. Pure and simple acknowledgement that given the situation we were in, he saw that I could defend myself if needed. 

“Quick! Up into the trees! Bilbo! Climb!” 

I pulled on the handle of the sword, grunting loudly when it didn't easily come loose from the skull that it was embedded into. 

“Hurry!”

Thorin's voice was an icy chill on my back and I twisted and rocked the blade until it came loose and was freed; I wasted no time in sheathing it, running straight into the line of the trees and seeing where the lowest hanging branch was so that I could use it as either a footstep or some other means to climb. “Over here, Bilbo!”

Fili's voice sharp on my bottom and I followed where I physically heard it, seeing him hop down onto a lower hanging branch and reach down for me to jump up and take his hand. I used a nearby rock for a stepping point and swiftly jumped up, yelping in pain as I was grabbed and pulled up into the trees. I only felt Fili's strong arms around me briefly before he let me find my own footing on a branch, angling myself to look down and see where the wargs were surrounding us.

I watched from high above them as they snapped at the lower hanging branches, just wondering what we were supposed to do now that we were trapped. Yes, we were safe for the moment but what would we do once we needed to get down? Without food or water, we would just grow weaker in the trees and we couldn't exactly sleep to regain our strength either. We were truly and utterly trapped with no way down. I looked around at the other dwarves in the nearby trees, clinging to branches just as I was, shouting at one another to hold on tightly and not fall.

As the pack of wargs circled below us, I realized that we might not be alright.

“Bilbo?” I looked up, surprised to see Fili so close to me, “Yes?” I asked, stunned and bewildered that he would actually stop and talk to me in such a dire situation. His eyes were bright in the moon's light and he smiled at me briefly before pressing his lips to my forehead. “You look beautiful.”

It went quiet below us, the wargs becoming silent.

My fingers unconsciously touched my forehead, feeling the exact spot where Fili kissed me. Don't worry; everything will be all right. I closed my eyes because the Durins always kissed me on the forehead when they didn't want me to worry when there was all the need in the world _to_ worry.

My face streaked pure white hot fire. 

I cried out in horrible agony, screeching even as I brought my fingers up to my cheeks but it wasn't just my cheeks that hurt. It was my entire body, lines of patterns on my arms and chest that blazed painfully. Fili's hands were on me, asking me if I were alright but his voice felt so far away. I cracked my eye open in pain, looking for the voice that caused such a horribly painful sensation and saw the wargs below all looking to one in particular. 

“It cannot be.”

Thorin's voice was in my ear, quiet and disbelieving and I glanced at him, following the line of his intense stare until my eyes fell upon the sight of a pale orc sitting astride a white warg. My mind paused because I thought again of how I described the orc below us. 

A pale orc.

My memories churned out the name from the story of so long ago. Azog, the Defiler. Thorin's sworn enemy, who once vowed to wipe out the line of Durin, and was somehow before us when he was supposed to have been dead. 

I looked at Fili, Kili, and Thorin and felt fear run like ice through my veins; I thought back to when I heard the story of Azog months ago and so foolishly and innocently asked of the pale orc's fate. Had I known at the time that _this_ was the orc referred to in the story, I would have felt horrendously fearful instead of almost brushing off the detail. 

That, that _thing_ down there was pure evil. His voice burned as hotly as any fire because it stung as cold as ice. Now that I was focusing on his voice, I could feel the icy trail of it in lines on my skin and when he shouted something in his horrible, foul sounding language, I felt as if they could cut into my very flesh.

The wargs hastened to obey their master's command and just as quickly as he had given such an order, they were upon us, attacking the trees that we were took shelter in. They ripped and pulled at the branches, snapping them and gnawing them and each time they did so, they flung their body weight against the entire tree. Each time, the pull of weight rocked the skinny structure back and forth. 

I heard a jumble of cries and I watched as one of the trees in front of us started to sag and lean. 

“It's going!” 

Dwalin's voice shouting out into the night, a sharp touch against my cheek. I could give no thought to his words or the fact that the other trees in front of us were falling, colliding into one another before the very tree that the brothers and I sat in finally shuddered once last time under the weight of us in it and the wargs against it. We were falling too. One after another in horrifying effect, the first tree tumbled into the next, ripping it down until it too fell.

“Come on!”

Just as the dwarves jumped and piled onto the trees one by one, I got ready to jump to Thorin's tree that we were swinging down towards. I saw Kili hop over to a branch near me as we fell, jumping over when we were close enough and I following after. Just as soon as we landed in Thorin's tree, we had to get ready to do it again since his was falling just as surely as any of the others. There was only one tree left that the wargs could not easly touch and that was Gandalf's.

I readied myself again, waiting for the right moment to jump with the others and when I saw a good branch to grab onto, I steadied myself before I leapt. As soon as I landed in the tree and grabbed onto the branch, I felt it groan and snap under my weight and plummeted down. Painfully, I slid down the tree's trunk until after snapping a few more and scratching skin raw, I managed to be caught against another branch as it collided against my chest and weathered my weight. I was in agony over how abused my ribs were, panting and sucking in breath harshly even as I clutched at my side. 

Given the position of the last tree standing and how close it was to the cliff's edge, we were safe for the moment but looking around at the dwarves, I couldn't even be sure of that. They all looked worried and afraid, angry and distraught by the sight of Azog. Thorin himself could do little more than stare down his enemy from where he was forced to stay. Even knowing that he was battered and exhausted, I had a feeling that he would have liked nothing more than to go down there and face his old enemy face to face.

Something caught my attention in the corner of my eye, a small object that was thrown; I tried to think of what it could be but as soon as whatever it was struck the ground, it burst into flames, a wild spray of orange, red and yellow that engulfed the night and blinded my eyes! I gasped in surprised, sitting back along the branch as one more was thrown and spread the trail of flame. “Fili!” 

I looked up and saw Gandalf pulling a pine cone from the tree's branches; when my eyes darted back to how the flames spread and how the wargs were briefly held back by the sight of the flames, I pushed myself up off my branch and climbed up closer to where the brothers were. I had to help! I saw that Fili was lighting a pine cone on fire for Kili and I grabbed a pine cone of my own so that he could share the ammo. He grinned at me before we had to dodge a falling pine cone meant to light the rest of what we would need to make for our quick defense against the orcs. We would fight back with what we had available to us and we were not down for the count yet. 

Now this was something that I was skilled at! 

I angled myself to keep balanced and steadied myself on the branch and aimed for where the wargs gathered; easily I tossed it and loudly I cheered when it landed exactly where it was supposed to go. A second later, I was given another pine cone and once again, I was tossing it right into the fray. Below us, the other dwarves were doing the same, cheering and excited whenever the wargs scattered and could approach us no further. 

We were so happy that when the tree lurched, none of us were ready for it; Kili nearly fell and I barely managed to grip onto the nearby trunk before I realized with horror that we were actually falling! We were falling and unlike before, there was no where to jump to! I gripped onto the trunk tightly, feeling fear race through me at the sensation of the tree buckle under our weight. 

I closed my eyes, willing my body to accept the inevitable fate of our descent.

The weight of the tree stuttered harshly, the roots still fighting to hold into the ground as it groaned under the weight of the dwarves and me. It gave one sag before lurching downward but once again, we did not fall completely. We were each unable to hold steady, though only some of us were completely dislodged from their places. I gasped as Kili was ripped from his spot, legs hanging freely as he desperately clutched to a thicker branch. A cry from my side forced me to see that Ori had fallen clear out of the tree and was grasping onto Dori even as he cried out for Gandalf for help. 

We were going to die. If not from the wargs or Azog then from the very simple consequence of gravity doing what it has always done.

A step in front of me distracted me from the plight of the two brothers, forcing me to look ahead and see what was happening; my eyes locked onto the figure of Thorin standing on the tree trunk, sword drawn and staring down his great enemy. I stilled even as I understood what he was doing, my jaw dropping in disbelief as he started to walk away from us on the tree, heat from the flames in the distance drafting over us in the wind. What did he think he could do? None of us could help him if he were to charge into battle. Did he truly think he could survive a fight against the evil that Azog was by himself?

“Gandalf!” I shouted because truly there had to be something the wizard could do to stop Thorin or help him! Anything, just something so that he didn't go alone into battle! 

Thorin charged on like nothing would deter him from this, like it were a moment in his life that was fixed, fated to always happen no matter what. A final battle with Azog. He would not back down from the pale orc and he would not let himself die before making sure that the creature met his death on his elven blade. I wanted to believe that he could fight such an evil thing by himself and win but with the knowledge of his exhaustion, I almost couldn't muster the hope for such a thing. I wanted to hope.

I needed to hope when I saw Azog and his warg brace themselves to attack.

My face twisted into something ugly and terrorized when I saw Azog strike Thorin down as easily as I feared he would. Time slowed and my heart raced. I couldn't breathe even as I gripped the tree because of how sickening it was to watch Thorin struggle to get up and just as easily be thrown back again by a blow from Azog.

What was happening. Why was this adventure turning out like this?

Gandalf promised that I would have a tale to tell when I came back but I didn't want to tell this one. I felt sick just looking at Thorin as he was practically masticated by the white warg Azog sat on before being so carelessly tossed aside. I felt horror and I felt disbelief. I could not cry. Without realizing it, I stood on the tree because I could not will myself to stay put.

My eyes widened as I saw an orc approach Thorin's body on the ground and draw his sword. I watched Thorin about to be beheaded, knowing that this would be it. This would be the very last image that would be ingrained in my memory of Thorin Oakenshield. This would be the tale that I would tell and this would be the end of our journey...

Just as easily as one could wake up one day and want to change their entire lives by wanting to go on an adventure, I understood what could make Thorin want and able to kill someone. I now understood what could make the brothers need to put themselves into danger. I had to protect him. I was afraid, body barely at my own heed, and yet I knew that I needed to protect him. 

I drew my sword and felt the heat of the flames graze along my skin as I did the very same charge that Thorin did towards what was now my great enemy. This thing was not like Gollum. There was nothing pitiable about him and I would kill him before he hurt Thorin. I would not let Thorin become some story that I told to other Hobbits when they bothered to listen. I would not let any of that happen!

I shouted in terror and fury as my entire body protested the impact into the giant orc, the force of my small form just enough to tackle him down and away from Thorin; just as easily as I knocked him to the ground, I was being thrown off and he was rounding back to stab at me with his sword. There was no time to think. Only time to react. I was smaller as was my sword and I stabbed upward where his weapon could not hope to defend. He arched back away from me in pain, and I leapt up from my back, stabbing him again in the shoulder. 

My hands never hesitated even when he was below me and I stabbed his chest over and over again, black blood spurting from wounds and on my clothing. I didn't feel like a different Hobbit even when the orc gave one last twitch of life. Compared to the warg, I easily pulled my blade from his chest and I twisted around to stand in front of Thorin.

I was now face to face with Azog. He was now my fated enemy.

I was terrified, not knowing what I was supposed to do when the rest of his band of orcs on their very own wargs came behind him to back him up. I held up my sword again because that was the only thing I could do and I did not know what would happen to me. I didn't care. I saved Thorin's life. I would die knowing that I defended someone I loved. 

That was all that mattered.

Azog and I stared each other down, him towering over me even from the distance he was at and I unwilling to back down from him. I held my ground fast. I would not let him approach Thorin. I shook from my fear but I would not let him near Thorin!

I flinched when he ordered his orcs to most likely dispose of me, his voice burning icy heat along my skin in patterns that I suddenly recognized as his own. His scars painted themselves in sensation on my body... 

I glared at the approaching pack of orcs, my stance and eyes telling them alone not to come near me. Just as I readied to swing my sword because they were close enough, I heard the shout of battle cries! My eyes widened in the disbelief of Fili and Kili shouting and attacking the wargs and orcs, their swords whipping in the air and slicing down to attack any enemy that came at them or was foolishly in their path. 

Just as suddenly as Fili and Kili charged against the orcs, I saw the rest of the company follow suit! They were beating the orcs back!

An orc to my side pulled my attention back to it and just as his warg went to strike out at me, I whipped my sword around and sliced at its mouth and again at its eye. The angle it snapped its head back knocked me off balance and before I knew it, I was on the ground, twisting back around so that I would not be left unguarded and unaware of what was at my back. 

Azog approached without worry, thinking that he could take care of Thorin while I was down and the other dwarves distracted. His eyes bore down into me, a promise of so much pain and other horrors for the one that kept him from his long sought after prize. I shivered when those eyes glared down on me in cold rage but just as quickly he was forced to look away from me. 

I didn't need to turn my head but immediately after Azog was forced to turn away, a giant eagle swooped down and literally scooped up one of the nearby orcs, carrying him off and dropping him off the cliff! My jaw dropped in surprise, seeing as more eagles swooped down to catch various wargs and orcs and scatter them off the edges of the mountain side.

Some of them fanned the flames of the fire with their giant wings until it forced the rest of the warg pack back and upon seeing one swoop down towards me, I rolled over and covered my head. Almost as soon as I rolled over though, I was up again because I remembered that Thorin was nearby and just as my eyes connected to where he was, I saw him being lifted off by one of the eagles. 

I wanted to shout but as soon as I made to do so, I was being scooped up by another eagle and unceremoniously dropped into the air! 

I screamed as the rush of wind danced around me, my skirt flying up and my hair whipping wildly, until I felt the soft feel of feathers make up my fresh landing on the back of another flying eagle!

I nearly threw myself back from the creature because I did not like birds and I certainly did not like being up in the sky at so high a height! I remembered my sword and sheathed it again, looking around in the darkened night sky for the rest of my companions. I swore that if I did not see them following on birds like mine I would seriously not be at all bothered to rip out the damned eagle's feathers until he returned me to them!

I relaxed as soon as I saw that they were indeed following and with it, I leaned down to bury my face into the warm feathers of the giant eagle beneath me...

We were rescued. We were safe. None of us were dead.

With that realization, exhaustion rushed over my body and I cried because Thorin was nearly killed and I almost was close to follow. I sobbed into soft feathers because I was tired and because I just wanted this entire night to be over already.

 

The wind rushed around my face, my entire body felt sore when my eyes opened to the light of the coming dawn in my eyes. I was slow to move, exhaustion still ringing so strongly in my limbs, my ribs a dull ache that did not relent no matter how much I tried to find a position that was comfortable for them. 

We were high above the mountains, swirling through clouds and when I sat up to look over, even I had to concede that it was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen in my entire life. The valleys sprawled out below us gracefully, rivers twisting and trees practically glowing green. 

Life was beautiful. It was something so easily forgotten while in the dark.

“Bilbo!” 

I turned my head and smiled at the sight of Fili and Kili on their very own eagle, both of them looking utterly spent as if they hadn't slept all night and staring at me as they tried to assess if I was injured or not. Of course, I was injured but it was nothing I couldn't handle anymore. I waved to them and smiled, a happy thing that made me laugh because we were alive and we were well. 

My eyes found Thorin, who was still being carried in the claws of one of the eagles. 

Not all of us were well though. Even as I registered Fili shouting out for Thorin, I too felt myself worrying over whether or not Thorin would be okay.

We would need to wait to know for sure. 

When we finally started to descend in the sky, I was grateful partly because I wanted to actually touch the solid ground again and because I was desperate by then to see if Thorin was okay or not. I eventually saw a tall structure of a strange rock formation casually standing in the very middle of a wide open valley, and after we circled it a few times, the eagle that carried Thorin gently set him down on the very top of the rock.

Gandalf was set down after him and in a great motion, the eagle I was on landed on the very edge of the rock and bent its head for me to get off, waiting patiently while I wiggled off and found my footing. I watched as it easily lifted itself back into the air and circled again; concern for Thorin overpowered my want to see the eagles fly off or to see to the other dwarves.

I stepped closer but felt like I needed to give Gandalf some space as he checked on Thorin, kneeling down by his side and a hand covering his face. What did that mean? I fretted with the worry that Thorin was gravely injured or that I had been maybe too late and a fatal wound was done instead of the beheading. I clenched at my skirt and huffed in frustration. 

My breath caught in my throat when I saw Thorin twitch and his eyes open. I went slack with relief because Thorin was alive and he would be okay and – why was he being so forceful about standing up...?

“It's alright, Bilbo is here. She's quite alright.”

I stepped closer because maybe Thorin had asked about me and seeing him on his feet was such an amazing thing. I couldn't even keep my smile off my face as happy as I was to see him alive and well. I wouldn't need to tell sad stories about him. 

The smile on my face was so quick to fall when I saw Thorin nearly push off his nephews and step purposefully towards me; he looked upset and he looked angry and I didn't know what to do. What had I done wrong? “You! You nearly got yourself killed!”

His voice was like nails down my arms and left unable to do anything but stare, I watched him as he angrily stepped closer to me, “What were you thinking!?”

I couldn't speak. I didn't know how to defend myself because I thought after everything that we've been through recently and back in Rivendell, he would understand. 

“You have been a burden since the moment we left.” My eyes widened, “You have barely survived out in the wild.” I felt tears welling, hot and fresh and Thorin's image blurred, “Did I not also say that you had no place with us?”

I nodded dumbly, unable to process the way his voice slid down my arms and ached so teasingly against my back. Nothing was at all right about any of this. How could his voice tease me in such a way and yet be so hurtful? Why was Thorin mad at me and why did I want to cry to him to forgive me for saving his life? 

“By Mahal, I have never been so wrong in all my life.”

I startled in shock as he pulled me close, his arms wrapping around me so tightly that I felt pain in my ribs just from the pressure of his hold. It hurt so much and yet I couldn't stop myself from hugging him back. It was the first time Thorin had ever initiated any sort of hug, the very first time he closed the gap between us.

I hugged back so tightly that I winced even as I smiled. 

I almost did not want him to pull back from me, almost tried to keep him close to me even as I felt him loosen his hold and look at me. His lips found my forehead and I laughed because this one was not meant to ease my worry. I remembered what Fili told me days past about it being done just out of love and a want to comfort. How quickly my heart beat at the soft press of those lips against my skin and how I yearned for those fingers that traced along Fili's braid carefully.

When he pulled back to look down at me, there was nothing guarded about him now. His smile was beautifully radiating. His eyes were bright and gentle. Nothing was hidden from me. There was open love and affection in there, desire and need only to show me just how much he cared for me. Softly, he leaned his forehead down against mine, that enchanting smile still on his own lips.

Only when the group cheered openly did we pull away from one another, the blush on my cheeks flushing brighter as I caught the grins on both Fili and Kili's faces.

Something had caught Thorin's attention the second we pulled away and now curious as to what it was, I turned around and saw in the far distance the very picture of beauty. 

“Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. The last of the great dwarf Kingdoms of Middle-earth.”

Gandalf's voice was a wonderful weight on my shoulder, a guiding sensation as he always has been and would forever be in my future. I smiled at how familiar it was and turned my smile to Thorin as his voice curled over my spine possessively, “Our home.”

Even as the dwarves looked off into the distance to where their kingdom lie in wait for them to reclaim it, I felt Fili and Kili come up beside Thorin and I; their presence was welcomed so fully that I leaned back into Fili's hand at my lower back and rested my head against Thorin's arm.

Given all that happened in our adventure so far, I felt that the very worst of it must have been behind us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg, I totally had the wrong title!


	35. The Joy of Companionship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The company of Thorin Oakenshield recuperate on the top of The Carrock...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter update today with some much needed fluff.

While the view was quite lovely from the top of what Gandalf so aptly called The Carrock, I was a Hobbit and we were not agreeable to any manner of heights by any means. Being on the back of a bird was one thing but all of us just standing so close to the edge was just out of the question; the vertigo alone made me nauseous and I had to shake my head just at the thought of how comfortable the dwarves were at the edge of the giant structure.

As I sat down to watch the rest of the group pile their things together to see what we had in terms of supplies, which was quite a sorry sight to see given that we still had to travel to what looked to be a very, very far away lonely mountain, I flinched every so often as Oin tended to my foot. He did the best he could given that he lost his medical kit in the goblin town back in the mountains but using what water was in his waterskin and what salve he always kept on his person, he cleaned my cut, spread a thick salve on the wound itself, and bandaged it with a piece of cloth torn from his own shirt.

On one side of me sat Fili and on the other sat Bifur, both of whom refused to leave my side for anything as soon as they saw the full extent of my injuries. Fili was content to watch the simple process while Bifur fussed over me in a way that would even give Dori a run for his money, looking at my torn skirt and various cuts and scraps that Oin more than once had to stop and argue with him over the severity of. It felt nice being fussed over again and was made even better by the fact that it wasn't the Durins. I was welcomed and comfortable surrounded by the dwarves and they seemed to accept me in a way that was different than before. 

I was no longer an accessory of the Durins; I was something of use and value entirely on my own because I had saved Thorin's life and held my own while in the mountains.

“Honestly, Bifur, it's only lightly bleedin'! The Hobbit isn't going to die!” Oin huffed out, his voice a popping sensation in my ear that made me giggle and look at Bifur, who still grumbled in his native tongue and signed to the elderly dwarf, “I'm not listening. I can't hear you. For Mahal's sake, it's not gushing everywhere!” Between the two of the older dwarves, I had a amusing time with their voices popping in my ears and tickling under my armpits but when they finally escalated into an all out argument, I couldn't help but laugh.

When I laughed loudly at how Bifur was fussing and how animated Oin was becoming by the very nagging of the toy-maker, I winced and clutched at my ribs. I wasn't even sure how I could have forgotten about them still being injured because ever since I was let down onto the Carrock, I felt them throb constantly. I was reminded of Fili's near constant presence when his hand covered mine, fingers tightening in worry and his blue eyes directed at me, “What's wrong?”

“I think I broke my ribs sometime after the Thunder-battle.”

Fili's eyes widened and Bifur himself nearly choked on his own breath but before either of them could say anything at all about my injury, Gandalf interrupted from above us. All of us looked up, surprised to see him so close and wondering just how long he had been hovering and listening.

“Well, why didn't you say anything earlier?”

The sound I made was not proper and definitely not very lass-like either. I practically cursed at him jokingly before I just shook my head and rolled my eyes out my frustrations at the very question. Honestly, the wizard was crazy to even say such a thing because up until the goblins, he was decidedly absent and ever since his reappearance, everything afterwards went all rather upend.

So why didn't I mention my injury earlier, Gandalf? Oh, ya know, between the falling down dark tunnels and falling off dark bridges and nearly being eaten in dark caverns and then almost being murdered in the dark of the night by orcs... yeah, it just failed to cross my mind to mention my tiny ribs being just a wee bit cracked.

Gandalf, doing exactly what he always did best, seemed to just direct that all too familiar cheeky grin at me, those blue eyes glinting down on me in amusement. Being the wizard that he was, I knew he could tell what my thoughts were and motioning my two dwarven companions away from my side, he sat down and got comfortable. 

“Close your eyes.”

When I closed my eyes, I felt the sensations of the company's voices as they talked in the background brushing up against where I always felt them, but covering them like a blanket was a new one, a warm melting presence on my side that blossomed into a steady heat as it traveled outward. By the time I opened my eyes to watch the healing magic of Gandalf do its work, whatever spell he performed had become a soft, receding glow and Fili's eyes sparkled with the last traces of it before it disappeared entirely. 

“Is she all better now?”

His voice was a nervous tremble on my bottom, to which Gandalf just replied easily, “Well, it'll still be sore for a bit but if she's careful about it, she'll be quite alright.” 

Breathing in deeply, it was just as Gandalf said; yes, there was still some residual soreness but other than that the sharp pain from before was gone. “Thank you very much, Master Gandalf.”

Though Gandalf was finished healing the worst of my wounds, Oin was still poking about the various cuts I had and resigning myself to be fussed over some more, I sought to get comfortable. The sun was bright overhead and the wind from the high vantage point felt good ruffling through my messy, tangled curls; the rock beneath my fingers was warm from the sun's rays and more than once I drifted off to sleep because of how comfortable it was. 

When I was finally deemed fit for casual strolling around our humble Carrock abode, I gratefully took it since Fili was now talking to Kili in a circle that made of them and the brothers Dori, Nori, and Ori. Sometime between Gandalf and Oin tending to me again, Bifur retreated to fuss over his cousins and I didn't want to interrupt that either. Near the edge of the great rock, Thorin and Dwalin sat side by side and I had the urge to join them just because I felt I could actually do so now. I didn't feel like staying back by myself like I used to do in the days before. 

Confident about my plan and needing to stretch my legs, I stood and felt the pop of my back before I wandered over to where the two intimidating dwarves sat, the closer I got the more obvious it was that they were talking about something in Khuzdul. As soon as they heard me approach, they switched over to Westron and I heard them discussing various things about how to get more provisions and which direction in the land below we could travel through.

Not wanting to interrupt their conversation, I silently sat down next to Thorin, humming gently in the back of my throat when his large hand casually went from his lap to slide along my lower back and rub soothing circles. It was a huge change from what was the normal happenstance before, our leader being distant at every step and brushing me off and not even initiating any affection in public. Whatever changed between us from my saving his life or proving that I was capable of handling myself on our adventure so far seemed to ease his mind and allow him to open up slightly. He was still quiet, just as I knew he always was, but now he did not keep himself reserved from me. 

Maybe in the days to come when we were on the move such moments would change but from what I could tell by his current actions, it would be nothing like how we were in the Misty Mountains.

As Dwalin and Thorin talked about the journey and eventually veering off to more personal topics that had them both chuckling softly, I leaned my head down against the soft fur of his coat and closed my eyes, relishing the familiarity of how their voices brushed along my cheek and along my back, arms, and legs with every inflection of their chattering.

How long the company just sat around not bothering to move from the Carrock, I could not say but when I was woken gently from the rocking of a casual nudge on my right, I looked around and saw that the sun was lower in the sky. “Hm?”

“I asked, if you would mind removing your jacket and skirt?”

I pulled away from Thorin's warmth, confusion and cheekiness getting the better of me, “How ever did you hide from me for so long that you were an exhibitionist?”

He scoffed at the very idea and motioned with his head, “Ori has offered to mend your clothing for you. Given the state of it, I would say that it's an offer not to be refused.”

Even as Thorin's voice trailed like soft touches along my neck, my eyes found Ori's form on the other side of the Carrock, and just as if he noticed me staring at him, he perked up and turned to where Thorin and I sat. Cheerfully, he waved in greeting, a faint flush of red on his cheeks and I smiled back at him, a wave gladly returned. “No, I don't think I'll refuse it.”

I sprung up from my spot and unbuttoned my jacket, seeing as I did so that Thorin too stood and began to shrug off his heavier coat; just as I got my jacket off, Thorin took it from me and motioned for me to turn around so that I was facing away from the group. I couldn't see what he was doing but when I felt the heavy weight of his coat on me, I looked back, “Giving you some privacy.”

He explained simply and it was then that I realized that his bulky form blocked me completely from the rest of the company and now with his longer coat over me, even my legs would be covered from sight. I nodded at the polite gesture, thanking him gratefully though before I could sit back down, he stopped me. His leaned forward, his eyes boring down into mine before they gestured downward. 

“Your skirt as well.”

His voice stroked sensually up my spine and I nodded dumbly before I clumsily started to unbutton it; my fingers fumbled and I felt my heart race when Thorin stepped closer and brushed my fingers away, taking the task upon himself to finish. As I felt those fingers at my waist, with the way his eyes watched me, I found my memories going back to when we were in Bag End and his gaze ensnared me. I wanted to follow those hands of his when he knelt down to let me step out of my skirt but before I could do anything more, he was walking away to give the articles over to Ori. 

Never before had I been more grateful for the layers that a Hobbit lass wore, happy to retain some of my public decency because my petticoat somehow hadn't been torn when Thorin grabbed onto it that night and from the bloomers I wore. I sat back down on the edge of the Carrock, willing myself not to look down and definitely wishing that I were somewhere with a nice hot bath as an option. I stunk and my clothes definitely needed a good washing.

When Thorin returned, I was a little surprised to see that Oin followed him, fussing about how bothersome Thorin was and how stubborn he was being; as soon as Thorin sat down, he turned our most stoic and solemn leader to face him and began to dab and clean his face with water and rub a salve mixture on it. I couldn't help but giggle at the sight of Thorin practically pouting, turning his face this way and that to try and avoid Oin's fingers. 

“Stop yer fussin', laddie.”

“It stinks.”

As I sat and watched the two of them bicker and nag one another, Oin fussing and Thorin whining at the treatment, I felt that this really was going to be an amazing adventure from here on out if this sight would become a staple of it.

“So where are Fili, Kili, and Dwalin?”

It was something that I noticed when I was shrugging off my jacket, the fact that the brothers and Dwalin had disappeared off to who knew where with the wizard in tow. 

“Off hunting. They climbed down a bit ago."

Thorin replied, even as he grimaced and tried to turn his head away from Oin's fingers; abruptly, the old healer gripped onto his jaw and pulled him back into place so that the two were eye to eye, “I'll do the body next if yer don't behave.”

As threatening as the healer was, he was no match for the hunting party's gallant return, cheering and bowing victoriously with their arms full of their bounty. Just as Thorin heard their voices, he was up and away from Oin, a swiftly disappearing navy blue figure that was eager to help with dinner preparations that while not usually something that required his attention, he was only to happy to volunteer it.

Despite Oin grumbling about how difficult and stubborn Thorin was, he too went over to help the others build a fire from what kindling and wood they gathered. I followed him over but as soon as I went to see if I could offer my help as well, Fili swooped down to kiss my cheek before he started to get to work on the skinning of whatever he caught. When I looked down at his bounty, my mouth watered with the thought of us actually having hot meat, a furry trio of bunnies held tightly by the ears.

Just as quickly as he kissed my cheek, Kili was kissing my other one and I blushed at the surge of affection that I got from all of the Durins in one day all while in the presence of the company. It was nice to see them so attentive but at the same time, I was embarrassed and a little overwhelmed by it now. “Oin's going to tell you to keep off that foot, Bilbo.” 

Kili playfully pushed me back, fingers teasingly tickling my sides even as his voice pinched playfully underneath my bloomers. I giggled from those damnable hands and tried to swat them off but before I knew it, he was shoving me down and giving me his water skin. “Drink up, we found a nearby river.” 

I was next to Balin now and from the glint in his eye, I could tell he was enjoying himself as he watched Dwalin unload a deer from his shoulders and set it down on the Carrock's cooling surface. After Thorin dragged it off, we watched as the Kili and Oin busied themselves making the fire that we would need to cook our dinner while at the same time, Fili and Thorin set to work skinning the rabbits and the prized and much fawned over deer. 

“They look happy.”

My head turned to look at Balin, the brush of his voice against my cheek gentle and kind. 

“Hm?” I inquired, wanting him to say more if it would give me even the tiniest of insight about the very men that I felt so attached to. Balin glanced at me briefly before nodding his head in the direction of the dwarves, “Fili and Kili were always kept pretty happy but with Thorin, it's just nice to see that again.”

My eyes stared as Thorin skinned a rabbit expertly, his face a look of concentration but just as Balin said, he didn't look disturbed or upset in any way. He was just relaxing while in the presence of his company, peaceful and yet alert for any trouble that may come our way. “So, all of this is okay?” I motioned around, a vague gesture to indicate all of us.

Balin nodded, understanding instantly, “Oh, quite so. It's common enough for a dwarf or lass to take multiple partners into their home just as long as it makes them all happy. You'll get no objection from us here,” His eyes found mine, “least not anymore since you saved our King's life.”

I blushed hotly from such praise and hid my face away from him in the fur of Thorin's jacket.

“Mistress Baggins?” The sensation of strong fingers against my cheek and the formality of my name made me look back at Balin, “We could never thank you enough for that. Once more, I am at your service.” He bowed his head to me and I returned the gesture, always willing and eager to repay anything granted to me. 'As I am at yours.”

He smiled at the newly started fire, “Then I only ask that you continue doing what you're doing. The guilt of losing our home and the burden of reclaiming it will feel easier if you're there to help him through it.”

I nodded because that was what I wanted to do and that was what I was determined to see through to the end. Balin and I talked about more trivial things after that, waiting for dinner and enjoying the warmth of the fire even though the sun was almost set. That evening we ate splendidly for the first time in what felt like ages and we shared stories and laughter as easily as any company that had been together through thick and thin for ages past. 

On my right was Balin and on my left was Thorin and the brothers, the presence of companionship overwhelming even as Bofur acted out tales of his poorly timed scuffles with the law.

When we all slipped off into bed, bedrolls scarce from losing our supplies, Fili and Kili once more settled around me to sleep like before. Thorin shooed off the need to sleep, promising that he would take first watch but then slip down next to us when it came time for the second watch to switch over. Because the night was colder, Fili and Kili huddled around me closely, their arms wrapped around me tightly but even before we allowed exhaustion to take us, Thorin laid his coat over us and made sure that we were tucked in.

Thinking of Balin's words, I closed my eyes wanting to sleep, and hoped that my dreams would be peaceful.


	36. The Restless Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo dreams of Azog...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS!!
> 
> Just to be safe, there's a sense of implied raping going to happen below. Implied Non/Con! 
> 
> There's also some gore but no worse than normal. Just a general sense of dark stuff, okies?
> 
> Also, thanks to writerchick0214 for her suggestion with Azog having some defiling time.

Unfortunately for me, when I closed my eyes and dreamt, all I saw was an endless darkness...

I opened my eyes and saw for as far as the eye could see that same blackness that I thought I escaped from the day before. Immediately, I thought back to Gollum's cave where I once fretted about being trapped down under the mountain but the air around me felt different.

Somehow it felt more open but at the same time heavier. I couldn't breathe easily, and as I looked around, I saw in the distance black arching structures that reminded me of mountains. The darkness tickled at my nose with a sense of pungency and my limbs felt lethargic and weighted down like I was exhausted.

I knew I was dreaming but I couldn't move from my spot. 

There was the texture of rock beneath my feet, rough on my toes and when I peered down over the edge of the rock that I now stood on, I saw a battlefield that stretched on for ages. I could not clearly see the warriors nor know for sure what they were in terms of race but I knew that they had died down there fighting.

All around me floated a sense of misery and I felt myself being engulfed in the sensation, wanting to cry but my face didn't even flinch at the sight of the battlefield and the agony the warriors must have gone through. 

My fingers flinched unconsciously. I turned my head, though was unable to do anything more. Heavy footsteps stalked closer and I wondered what it could be... I didn't feel the same sense of trepidation that I knew I would feel if I were really in such a situation but I knew that I felt some sort of nervousness. Something was creeping closer to me but whatever it was, it moved as if it had ever right to be close to me. 

A victor of spoils. 

I could not see whatever it was but I felt it behind me, a massive presence that as soon as it brushed along my body, I knew was dangerous. I felt it with such a clarity that all sense of the battlefield was lost. Sharp and dangerous, I felt like what prey must feel when cornered.

My eyes widened at the sight of pale claws on shoulder but when I went to run away from such frightening things, my hair was grabbed and I was held in place. I struggled in a known vain attempt to free myself but I couldn't break free from the strong claws, strength easily holding me when a heavily muscled forearm flexed to keep me still.

I gasped in the realization that I recognized it!

I tried to struggle again, needing to get away from the evil that was near me but the more I struggled, the more he held me and kept me from moving. I was forced to look forward. I was bound in place, unable to do anything more than just stand there. I wanted to move; I thought about how much I wanted to do such a thing but I just stood there unable to do anything but look forward into the endless darkness. 

He towered from behind me, leaning down so that he could nuzzle his cheek against mine; he was so foul that I curled away from him but his strong claws held me.

Azog's eyes stared into mine, horribly cruel and incredibly entertained by something; he looked out into the darkness with me and pointed ahead. When he whispered something in my ear, I felt the burn of his voice along my body and cheeks and only wished for him to stop. Whatever he said to me, I didn't want to understand it. Whatever he wanted to show me, I didn't want to see it. Whatever he wanted me to know, I didn't want to know it.

Endless darkness for as far as the eye could see but there, when I looked at my feet, a pool of blood that slowly oozed closer. I didn't want to know what caused it but my face crumpled because I already knew. I knew Azog's name and I knew his purpose already so, of course I knew what caused the blood. I was already on my knees crying because I didn't want to see it.

The sensation of wet blood was transient, a fleeting coolness that even when my fingers went into the dark red pool, I couldn't really feel the texture of it. 

Azog was in front of me now, looking down at me as if I were something small and puny - infantile at best - something to be dealt with accordingly. When he stood before me, I understood once again that he was evil just from the sight of him. He was foulness the likes I would ever see again.

My face crumpled at the sight of what was in his outstretched hand, an offering to the puny being that soured his long awaited victory with her defiance. For all my efforts, this is what was being offered. I cried at the sight of it, the very image of Thorin's head being held up by dark, gnarled locks of hair that was matted and disgusting even to look at. His eyes were lifeless and I had to look away in the fear of being sick.

The offering was made, thrown to my knees and earning a flinch from me when blood splattered against the skin of my face. I didn't want to open my eyes. I didn't want to see what I knew would be there. I didn't want to know. 

This was so obviously a dream. I willed myself to see something else than what I knew was there. 

I willed that when I next opened my eyes, I would see Thorin and the brothers standing there, arms outstretched with smiles on their faces, waiting for me to run to them.

I opened my eyes and froze at the sight of Thorin's head sitting perfectly upright but still devoid of any body. His eyes were closed now, at least no longer staring at me deadened and empty, but the sight of him was still too much. I reached for his head just because I needed it in my arms, safe where I could protect him from Azog because that creature was too evil. The weight of it was staggeringly light, so much so that I almost didn't understand why it was so light. Nevertheless, when I brought it near me, it became heavier and heavier until it sat perfectly in my lap. It felt as if it weighed a ton now that it was in my arms.

I could feel blood soaking my skirts, staining my fingers that brushed away the little hairs that hung in Thorin's face. Something was on his forehead. I could not stop myself from wiping the blood from his forehead, horrified that even as my hand slowly wiped it away, letters rose angrily from the skin.

A Z O G

I cried out from the pain of Azog's voice on my skin again, curling around the shape of Thorin's head even as I clutched it tightly in some vague attempt to get away from the Defiler. I kept my eyes closed even when I felt two more heads thrown down at my knees. I didn't want to open my eyes again because I knew what I would see. 

I couldn't see those faces the same way I had seen Thorin's. I couldn't do it. 

Viciously, I was pulled up from my spot on the ground, flung down to the hard roughened cavern floor of Gollum's cave. Azog was there and covering me with his massive form. I was screaming and trying to fight him but I was weak compared to him. All my struggles were met with little more than amusement, even as he held me down with a clawed metal hand and pulled out his dagger.

When he spoke, I cried out as the white hot, freezing cold of his voice burned lines of agony along my skin. I turned away from him, struggling but my face was held in place by something. I couldn't feel what but the more I tried to move against it, the tighter it held me down. 

I was forced to stare up at Azog as he brought the dagger down slowly to the skin of my face and out of sheer terror, I closed my eyes. If he was going to kill me, I didn't want to literally stare up into his eyes as he did so-

Painful, stinging fury erupted from my forehead and I instantly struggled against the foul orc, trying to dislodge him and beat him off but he wouldn't be deterred. Even as his voice spoke to me in that horrible language of his, his dagger carved into my forehead the letters of a name that I knew would be his own. When the dagger was finally lifted and I felt the sting of his name on my forehead, his laughter was this pervasive stench in the air. 

I desperately wanted to wake up. 

Almost like he heard what I was thinking, Azog's face twisted in rage and he threw the dagger aside, and grabbed at the very fabric of my vest. I remembered the story that Balin told us about Moria and I remembered the full mention of his name that Thorin said in battle.

The Defiler.

My struggles began anew, unwilling to be subjected to such a foul act, unwilling to just allow myself to be shamed any further, an act that would already accompany the sight of his name on my skin. I struggled even as I felt Azog rip away fabric, exposing skin and holding me down so that he could rip away my skirts. When I felt him spreading my legs, I screamed and clawed into the ground desperately- 

My eyes opened as I twitched awake, a near violent jostle of my body that made Fili mumble incoherently in his sleep before he snuggled back down into his spot and settled back into deep sleep. The visages of the dream were still upon me, washing over my mind like a rush of water that almost couldn't be stopped; I saw the battlefield somewhat still clearly and even the sensation of Azog's name on my forehead was fading from memory. 

The image of Thorin's bodiless head was still sharp as ever.

I shuddered at the memory and tried to bury my face into the warmth of the brothers to try and return to sleep but my adrenaline sang in my veins and I realized that I had faintly begun to shake. I laid there nonetheless because I didn't really want to get up and because the warmth of the brothers really was really doing wonders for calming me down.

All around me was the sound of snores and though it was always such an oppressive force on my chest that bothered me, it rested like a hand that let me know that they were there. There were nearby. Just breathe through it and it won't feel like it's suffocating. I still didn't like the feeling of it because every so often Gloin's louder snores would make the sensation push more firmly but between the two brothers and underneath the warmth of Thorin's jacket, it drowned out most of the sound.

I felt comfortable. I felt like I was calming down. I looked up into the sky above and saw the sight of the clear stars and sighed in the relief that we were still safe. All of us were safe and sound and Azog wouldn't be able to travel the distance that we did by air this quickly. We were safe for now. I repeated the thought in my head until I realized that I desperately tried to convince myself of it but that I was still unsure of such a notion. 

Azog was there still out there somewhere and with such a dream still lingering in my mind, I couldn't stay still anymore. I sat up from my spot between the brothers and untangled their arms from around me, smiling when Kili mumbled something about some sort of food that was running away from him. 

Given the fact that Thorin's coat was still on us, I figured that our most esteemed leader would be on first watch. My eyes found him exactly where I last saw him, still sitting cross legged and staring off into the distance around the Carrock. After a quick glance around the camp full of sleeping dwarves and a sleeping wizard, I stood up and made my way over to him.

The night was cold despite the warmth of summer that we knew to be going on down in the valley below the Carrock, the winds blowing strongly from our higher vantage point. I shivered even as I went to Thorin's side, both from the wind and from the vague images of the dream that still lingered in my mind unpleasantly. Now that I had been awake for longer than a few minutes, the dream seemed to fade off quicker than ever but the fear from such an experience was still profoundly felt. I was exhausted by such a dream but given all my confidences that it was just a silly dream and nothing more, the haunted quality of it pervaded my mind. 

“What's wrong, Bilbo?”

Fresh from a dream where Azog's voice practically burned me, his voice was a tender touch against my wrist, nervous and fluttering but still confidently present. His eyes gazed up at me from beside him, their blue depths looking over me with the worry that he felt towards my sudden appearance at his side. Never before had I not slept through the night and given that my face was usually so open, I knew he could see my troubles.

It was his eyes that truly did me in though. 

As soon as I saw them, even though I knew everything I saw moments before was a dream, I couldn't stop myself from seeing it again. Thorin's blue eyes horribly empty and his head cut clean from his body, the very outcome I tried so hard to avoid the night before. 

I sniffled and started to cry because even the memory of such an image was awful. 

Looking at Thorin did little to quell my feelings for that fact. Even as his hand reached out for me, I saw the raw looking scrapes, cuts and tender bruises on his face, knew of the injuries that he still needed to tend to on his body.

“You're such a stubborn dwarf...”

It came out as a whimper between my tears, “What were you thinking?” How ironic I would use the very words he used on me earlier in the day. Thorin's eyes were confused and sad, unable to figure out how to soothe me. He didn't know what to say to such words, only able to stare up and wait for me to speak more. 

“You were nearly killed back there!”

His eyes hardened instantly, a flush rising on his cheeks because of the embarrassment of his obvious defeat and how thorough it had been. The line of his mouth went grim and he made to turn back away from me, “It was my duty. I would-”

“You're an idiot!”

His eyes snapped back to look at me, obviously wanting to defend himself but before he could do so, my hand shot out and all I knew after that was the harsh sting on the palm of my hand. Thorin's face was so wholly open with his surprise, his eyes running through emotions too quickly to name. Absentmindedly, his hand went to his cheek, his whole being just so utterly shaken by my outburst.

He didn't know what to say.

“What good is it – any of this – if you're dead?”

I motioned out to the very world we were in, making a special point to direction his attention to where the Lonely Mountain still stood though it was hidden now by the night. Though my words lingered in the air, my meaning was quite clear. What good was any of this, this entire adventure of reclaiming a mountain for a King if the King was determined to get himself killed. 

We both stared at one another before his eyes softened and he smiled weakly, nodding slowly, “You are right. It does little good if I'm slain in battle.”

Upon his words reflected in my mind the very sight of him headless again and I started to cry in spite of the fact that Thorin was alive before me. Once again, he did not know what to do about my tears for he was the cause of them and he knew that. He did not want to be the cause of such a thing as my tears again.

His hand reached up, palm face up, and his eyes beckoned me, a request and a bid for forgiveness for whatever he recently did to instigate such tears. Without even bothering to take the hand, I collapsed onto him, my arms wrapped around his shoulders tightly and sobbing into his dark hair that was tangled and crusty with blood and smelled of musk, sweat, and an earthy pungency that would all together be too much if not for my urgency to be close to him.

His arms held onto me tightly, grounding me and letting me know that he was there and that everything was alright. I know I pulled his hair too tightly but I couldn't help it as I sobbed into his shoulder. 

His hand stroked along my back softly, roughened palm soothing me with an easy efficiency that made me think briefly of the brothers and if Thorin were used to such things because of them. Finally when my tears subsided and my breathing steadied once more, he asked me again, “Tell me what happened.”

His voice was tender along my neck, a whisper of sensation that trembled because he was frightened of such an answer but needing to hear it.

“I had a dream about you; there was death everywhere,” He tensed below me but allowed me to continue pouring out my worries into the thick of his neck, “You, Fili, and Kili. Azog was there... There was just so much blood and he- He carved his name into your forehead." I started to cry again, “Mine too. It hurt so much and I woke just as he was about to-” 

Before I could finish, Thorin pulled me back so that I could look at him, his hand in the thick of my hair.

“Don't even finish that! It was a dream; it would never happen. Not to you.”

“But if you're not-”

“It wouldn't matter. You held yourself well in the mountains, and when separated from us, you found your way back entirely on your own. Despite my behavior towards you as well, you saved my life. I _was_ wrong to have doubted you. I was wrong to think ill of you in any way.” He breathed in deeply the scent of my hair, “I am sorry, Bilbo. For everything.”

I held to him tightly because I was unwilling to let him go and because between the two of us, this was a rare moment for us to truly just let our feelings be said. Thorin and I were so awkward and proper about our emotions, too nervous or stubborn to say anything. Thorin and I weren't like Fili and I. Fili never had troubles saying what exactly he felt and he never had troubles expressing his love and affection for someone. I was awkward about it, taking too long and being so nervous about the other person. As much as I loved Fili, I still could not freely seek him out and kiss him in front of the others. Thorin was the same way, reserved and unable to wholly express himself as easily as his nephews could. They could show their concern in subtle ways. I could show only show mine by fretting over each of them. Thorin's worry came out too harshly, his concern too aggressively.

Where one side thrived with words, the other thrived under quiet.

In the quiet of such a horrible yet peaceful night, we were finally able to be understood.


	37. Down by the Ford

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and the others relax down by the river...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I'd like to apologize for the four day break between updates. :/ Normally I never let three days go by without updating but ever since the end of the movie, I've been wanting to take a short break.
> 
> With that thought in my mind, it became harder to sit down to write. Instead, I ended up watching the first two seasons of Being Human, which further screwed up my mindset for this story. 
> 
> HOWEVER! To make up for my absence, I've written a really long update for you guys full of a lot of different things! Also, for Kili lovers, there's plenty of him being adorable in this chapter.

“Oh, do not look at me that way; I always meant to see you all safe over the mountains,” From my spot next to Ori, I snuck a glance back over where Gandalf and Thorin argued, their voices raised, “Though we are indeed a good deal further east than I ever meant to come with you...”

“If not to help with the dragon-”

“Thorin Oakenshield, I have some other pressing business that I must attend to. Of course, once I am done, I may look in on your adventure from time to-”

“Master Gandalf, why even have you come along if-”

“ _Master_ Oakenshield, I am not going to disappear right this instant.” 

Ori and I sat there, engaged in our game even though we both snuck glances at the arguing pair. Back and forth they had been at it since the wee hours of the morning when we awoke and Gandalf announced to the company that he would need to separate from us shortly. After such an announcement, the company all went through their own varied reactions to how they absorbed that information...

Most of the group took it as poised and dignified as they could, though each were given to pleading and begging Gandalf to stay in their own various levels of urgency. Though I myself did not beg or plead with the wizard to stay with us, I definitely could not say that I was the most dignified; breaking down into tears from the realization that I alone would face a dragon. However, I could at least say that I was more dignified about it than Kili. 

Having built over the course of the entire journey the expectation that Gandalf would storm into Erebor and have this epic battle with Smaug, full of fire and molten rock flying through the air, and great bellows of magma the likes of which only volcanoes could spew; upon hearing of his planned departure, Kili promptly threw up everything he ate the night before.

Afterwards, he just sat there very still where not even Fili's nudging could snap him out of whatever funk he was in. Though Ori and I tried to coax him out of his thoughts, trying to gently talk him out of how cool it would be to watch Gandalf fight a dragon, we eventually had to concede that his imagination really did sound amazing and just let him to it. He would snap out of it when he was ready.

Ori took advantage of Kili not wanting to move and asked me if I wanted to play a game with him using some of his old scraps of knitting yarn. Given that Gandalf and Thorin quietly stole away to the other side of the Carrock to “discuss” in more detail what was going to happen in the future, I decided that I would play along with Ori.

So all in all, it had been a rather eventful morning.

Gandalf and Thorin stood arguing, their once quiet voices rising louder and louder as the minutes rolled on, while Ori and I huddled around Kili, carefully moving his fingers under and over a single strand of yarn that Ori knotted together.

I watched closely as Ori readjusted Kili's unresponsive hands before he ducked one of the older dwarf's thumbs through a loop and tugged it up. “See, and if you grab this thread with this finger...”

“Fire would've been shooting from the mountain...”

“Move his hands like this and– There ya go, see, it's a broom now!”

“Incantations... I probably could have ridden a dragon.”

“Now, I'm going to show you how to do a cat's cradle next.”

We noticed that too; sometime after having Kili join us as our demonstration tool, we started to hear him mumbling things that were quite strange. For the most part, we ignored it but it was still amusing to listen to what fantasy he concocted in his head. I watched Ori make the very image of a broom before going to reset the string in Kili's hands, his voice a furry tickle on my palms as he spoke confidently.

Ori was already moving Kili's hands to some other position, demonstrating what to do with his thumbs in order to start the next little structure that we would make with the yarn. Even in the background the company could still hear Gandalf and Thorin going back and forth and even Balin at times offering riches or whatever else the wizard would want. While they did that, the rest of us just waited for them. We were exhausted still and knowing that Gandalf wouldn't be joining us for the long haul didn't improve our moods any. 

“Surely the thought of silver and jewels is enough to stay?” Balin offered, his voice tickling my cheek pleasantly followed shortly by the steady weight of Gandalf's voice, “As I have said, Master Balin, we shall see.”

“So Bilbo,” My eyes darted back to Ori's demonstration, “Hook his index finger through this loop.”

“I could have been the King of Dragons...”

I reached over to take Kili's unresponsive finger and hook it through the loop that Ori indicated, waiting patiently for the next step, “Then you hook his pinky through this loop and pull.” Ori demonstrated this for me, looping Kili's pinky and pulling it until the string was taunt again.

“I would've been so majestic.”

“You are majestic, Kili.”

I replied with nary a thought at all, not even expecting a response back but just as easily as he was put into such a state, Kili was snapping out of his shock and looking at me, “You think I'm majestic?”

His voice scurried up my backside playfully, flirtatious and eager for more compliments that I normally was quite happy to oblige him with. He didn't pay any attention at all to the game that Ori and I were playing with him being the demonstration tool, his eyes clearly only on me, waiting eagerly for an answer. At the same time as he spoke, Ori showed me how to loop in the next step and I maneuvered Kili's fingers to create the newest portion of the cradle before looking back to Ori for the next instruction, “Of course. You don't need to ride a dragon to be majestic.”

Ori smiled up at the younger brother, a flush on his cheeks slowly blooming, “I agree with Miss Bilbo. You look handsome enough.”

Just as easy as Kili's day had been torn down to the utter shreds of what could possibly be acceptable for him, he puffed up again in a semblance of confidence and graced us lower born a look that was Princely and very much what he took to be very handsome. As much as I didn't want to encourage such behavior from him, both Ori and I noticed that our gazes lingered on the fine lines of his neck and strong looking jaw, a faint blush on both our cheeks. Kili truly was quite handsome, bearing a striking profile, “Well, I think I'd look even more striking on a dragon, thank you very much.”

Which was, of course, ruined by the fact that Kili was also outwardly arrogant about his looks. Easy enough to be roped into Kili's confidence and equally simple enough to be turned off by it, I rolled my eyes playfully at the comment, ready to ask Ori the next step to making the cradle. Before I could do so though, Kili finally noticed what we were doing and he sneered at the very idea that he had been compliant with playing even while out of it. He shrugged off the string, ruining all our efforts and tried to untangle his fingers as soon as possible, “By Durin's beard, what am I doing playing this childish game?”

“Oi! We were in the middle of that!”

Kili's response to that was a quick gesture that meant he heard and what Ori and I were both sure we were supposed to take as a quick and heart felt apology. I shook my head at the notion of him not even apologizing and how I could get back at him later and turned back to Ori to start our game again, this time on my fingers.

After that, despite the fact that Ori and I tried to get back to our little game, we were interrupted once again by Thorin, Balin and Gandalf finally giving up on their little debate. Thorin looked tense and I knew that he hadn't managed to convince the wizard to stay with us, a fact that was confirmed when he barked out that we would be leaving and to pack up whatever our belongings were.

The sun was high overhead when we made our way down from the giant carved steps of the Carrock, Gandalf happily explaining that someone he knew actually made the steps for such a structure and that the Carrock itself was close enough to his house that we would be going there next. I stayed back wanting to talk with the wizard about this mysterious stranger of his and see if I could pry a bit more information from him. I was grateful to stay back anyway since Gandalf's hand was on my shoulder the entire time as we climbed down the massive steps, making sure to keep me steady due to how horrendously steep the steps were.

At the bottom of the Carrock was a little cave, too tiny for us to sleep in and providing very little visibility for our watchmen but it was there that Thorin turned back to the wall and said that we would stay there for a bit and wash up in the nearby ford. I was a bit surprised by this since I figured we would be traveling straight on through to the mysterious stranger's home but none of the other members of the group looked as I did. They were immensely grateful to have the opportunity to wash up and took to the idea brightly. 

Some of them still had their backpacks and soaps with which to wash up with and I figured I would just ask to borrow some of Dori's since the idea of being clean again was a thought too amazing to resist. The smell of my clothing was indecent at best and my hair was a nightmare I didn't even want to consider, still braided but barely anything more than a giant knot.

I adjusted my vest, fingering a button hole that was missing its button before I made to wander off after the dwarves and wash up, knowing that I would need to find a more secluded spot to do so in. I didn't pay much mind to who I walked by but a sharp tug on my skirt stopped me. When I looked down to see who was keeping me, I saw Kili grinning up at me, “Not so fast, you.”

“Kili, I want to wash.” I went to take back my skirt, newly sewn back together by Ori, and nicely devoid of any tears but Kili merely pulled harder until I was forced to step closer.

“We want you to wash too but,” His voice was a smooth glide of fingers on my bottom and he grinned at me and motioned back to the ford where everyone else previously went, “Everyone else was too distracted to mention that we would consider it inappropriate.”

Though my hands had been trying to pry Kili's fingers off from my skirt so that he wouldn't even have a chance of ripping it, as soon as I heard his words, I stopped. My bathing would be considered inappropriate? I shook the thought from my head just because it sounded so preposterous but when I looked around the campsite, I noticed that besides Kili, only Fili and Thorin remained. Everyone else truly had gone off to the stream to wash.

As soon as my hands stopped trying to tug Kili away from me, he let me go himself and began to unlace his heavier boots and shrug off his various equipment. “So wait, why is it inappropriate?”

Already Fili and Thorin were following Kili's example, most likely desperate to head into the water and wash up but for some reason staying behind with Kili and I. “It would be considered an offense to us.” Thorin responded to my inquiry, his voice trailing along my neck as I sat down next to them and looked at the growing pile of vambraces and leather gloves and other various equipment.

I watched them shed their layers one by one and when Fili tugged off his outer coat, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a comb and tossed it over to me, “Here, for the knots.”

“I'm not super in the mood to play the twenty questions game with you guys, if you don't mind.” I began as I started to undo the braid that Fili put into my hair, wincing every so often at the tangle of a knot, “So why would it be considered offensive?”

The three Durin's looked at me before Fili grinned and motioned that he wanted to help me with my hair; I didn't think anything of refusing him so I stood up and went to his side but as soon as I was close enough, his hand shot out and grabbed me by the arm, tugging me down so that I was tumbling into his lap. Instantly, I was being tickled by his playful fingers, even as I struggled away from him, laughter echoing off the rocky structure of the Carrock. 

“Because Miss Hobbit,” Fili stopped tickling me long enough to explain, waiting for me to calm down and stare up into those blue eyes that gazed down at me lovingly, voice a teasing pinch. “We dwarves are a greedy, jealous race and if anyone looked upon you naked then we would have to fight them.”

“Is that true?”

I looked away from Fili and saw Kili shake his head at the display his brother made while Thorin himself nodded, “Aye, and I'm in no mood for anymore arguments.”

“So why would you guys argue?”

Thorin set aside his Orcrist, his eyes darting over Fili's shoulder where the ford was before coming to rest back on me, “We dwarves have rules to combat our fierce jealousy; a woman who has been spoken for can only show her naked self to her lovers. It is an honor that she grants to us.”

I blushed at the simplicity of it, of how obvious it seemed to the Durin's and how they just accepted such a thing so casually. As strong as the males of their race appeared to be from what I was able to personally witness, it was interesting to see that even though I was a Hobbit they were deferring down to me for such things. The way Thorin spoke of such things, I got the impression that “deferring down” wasn't even the right term for it. Deferring up, more like. I felt like even though all of the Durin's were physically more powerful than I was, they were bound to let me call the shots in this relationship. 

The thought made my heart race and my stomach flutter.

“How is it done in the Shire?”

Kili's voice was a pinch on my rear and I looked over to him even as Fili's hands wrapped around my waist and held me tightly, his facial hair tickling my neck as he nuzzled against the line of flesh, “Well, I wouldn't know personally but my female cousins were courted and married into their husband's families. Though it wasn't the case with my parents, the men tend to call the shots in the day to day life.”

Thorin snorted at the very idea of what I spoke, an amused glint in his eye and a slight shake of the head, “My sister would be amused to hear such things.”

His voice traveled down my spine in such a way that I shuddered from the feel of it, a ripple of sensation going through my body until I felt Fili's hand tighten around my waist and pull me closer. “Why is that?” I had to admit that I was always eager to hear more stories of Thorin's sister just because through lack of time and other factors, the brothers just weren't able to share as many stories of her as they normally would be able to. The stories they did share were always their own adventures or included Thorin but in the little ways, the three of them were imprinted on by Thorin's sister. The way they acted when I was upset in Rivendell was just one little example of a fierce woman in their lives.

“Our Mother definitely would be amazed by stories of Hobbits.” Kili chuckled while Thorin rolled his eyes, “She would shout at them for not wrangling the men more.” His blue eyes darted over to me and he smiled, “Dis demanded her husband marry her. It's why my sister-sons still bear our original last name. Their Father wed into our home.”

I was amazed by such a simple statement of Dis, the Mother of the two brothers and Thorin's sister, who just seemed the very epitome of female strength and ferocity. Even my own Mum who had done the same thing and demanded that my Dad marry her still ended up married into his family line as a Baggins. 

I wanted to ask more about the seeming equality of men and women in the dwarf culture and even of the mentioned last name that Thorin brought up (that I had no idea they even had) but just as I was about to ask, a noise stole my attention away from the conversation at hand. Kili and Thorin looked back themselves at the approaching rumble and with my curiosity piqued, I looked back too.

Oh, how I wished that my eyes would forget the very image that I was shocked into staring at. 

I flinched back at the sight of the naked return of the dwarves, shutting my eyes and hoping that I wouldn't see the sight of so many naked dwarves again in my entire lifetime. It was amusing to think that they had reservations about their women being exposed while bathing but that they thought nothing of exposing themselves to me!

“Come on! It's our turn!” 

I kept my eyes closed the entire time, listening to the rush of the company's voices as they pressed against me in the darkness, but entirely unwilling to just see more of their hairy _anything_. Naturally since I refused to open my eyes while surrounded by naked dwarves, I allowed Fili to lead me by the hand away from our spot and down the path to the river. When I was sure that we were far away enough, I opened my eyes again and beamed at the sight of how clear and fresh the water looked. 

It would feel amazing just to bathe again, regardless of whether or not the water would be heated. 

I undressed eagerly, layers coming undone quickly and being laid aside until I was down to only my chemise shift and bloomers. I was the only one who seemed to care about decency, the brothers both already butt naked and splashing around in the water, dunking each other and rough housing and soaking their hair. From beside me, Thorin was more reserved about his eagerness to dip into the water, slowly removing the various beads and clasps from his hair and peeling the layers left from his body. 

When Thorin pulled his mail off, he winced from the soreness that he undoubtedly still felt and though he did his best to look like he was fine when he noticed my staring, I came over and helped him with his tunic that was stained with blood. He allowed this and when I pulled the dark navy fabric from his body, my eyes widened at the sight of his injuries that were until that very moment still hidden. My fingers unconsciously traced the wounds, his chest and side littered with purple and black bruises, deep gashes, and cuts that looked painful.

I figured that the water would do him good, probably being cold and able to numb his injuries even a little. Already Thorin was kneeling down to wash his clothes with a bar of soap that he most likely procured from another dwarf but before he could start, I snatched the soap away and indicated that I wanted to do it, “I'll wash it for you. Just relax in the river.”

His eyes stared at me before he leaned over and kissed my cheek gently, “Wash your shift first since it'll dry quicker than anything else. I want you to have dry clothes to change into.”

I nodded at the suggestion and watched as he climbed into the shallow bank of the river, not exactly as willing to rough house as his two nephews who weren't as injured as he was. Set with my task though, I untied my bloomers and pulled off my shift, kneeling down by the water's edge all the while trying to keep the red off my cheeks. This was the first time I had ever been naked while outdoors and it was strange and vaguely liberating in a way. 

I was happy to clean my clothes, washing the grime and sweat from my shift and bloomers and just continuing on until most of Thorin's clothes were washed and needing to be laid out on a nearby rock where the sun would dry it. When finished with lying out the clothes, I looked up and saw that Fili and Kili were passing a bar of soap between them and washing their hair clean while in a deeper section of the river. Thorin himself was leaning against a rock, eyes closed and dozing lightly from the looks of it.

Figuring just to do the brothers a favor by helping out, I grabbed the brothers' garments and washed the inner most layers, taking extra care to try and get the blood and various stains from their tunics even though I knew I wouldn't be able to just as I hadn't with Thorin's. The sun was warm against my back and by the time I got to the rest of my own clothes, I didn't much feel like cleaning anymore. At that point, I was just happy that I managed to wash the layers most desperate for attention.

After I managed to find a free spot of rock for the brothers' clothes, I padded over to the edge of the water and toed the chilling water nervously. I was not afraid of water by any means but as I didn't know how to swim, I knew that I wouldn't be able to go into the deeper areas that the brothers did. The water was chilling and bordered closely on freezing but it would be refreshing. I would need to resign myself to the inevitable few minutes of chattering teeth if I wanted to thoroughly clean myself the way any Hobbit would want to.

I was grateful for the sun overhead and the sweat that I worked up washing clothes but even when I padded into the deeper water, I still felt my face frown at the idea of dunking my head under such cold water. I ended up just sitting in the waist deep section while I used the bar of soap to wash my hair, delighting in the fact that it smelled of flowers. I giggled at the idea that one of the dwarves had stolen it from Rivendell, just happy as a clam to scrub the dirt from my curly locks. 

The only unfortunate circumstance that came from being only in waist deep water came when I realized that I had no means to really rinse my hair out. I didn't exactly want to toe any closer to the deeper section of the river but I needed to rinse my hair out so I nervously edged closer and closer to the deeper waters, all the while maintaining a firm view of the brothers just in case I needed to shout out for either of them.

The cold of the water stole my breath away when I made for a quick dunk of my hair, exhaling harshly and coughing when it seemed to steal my breath away. I wanted to get out immediately, forgoing any chance to get used to the temperature. I was already at the edge, my hair a mess of wet curls that hung messily over my shoulders when I noticed that Thorin was awake again and checking up on his nephews before locating me. 

Upon sighting me, he motioned me over and it was only because I remembered that I had his soap that I went back into the water and joined him. “Too cold for you?”

He asked with a slight chuckle, his voice edging along my neck as he took back the soap, “I just rinsed my hair... I can't get used to the cold water like this.” I shivered from my spot next to him and watched as he started to lightly lather up, gently washing his injuries with care. “You didn't wash yourself yet?”

I shook my head, about to reply back that I would after he was finished since I had already hogged the soap, but just as I was doing so, Thorin tugged on my arm. 

“Come sit here then and I'll wash you.”

I watched as he patted his lap that was hidden underneath the flow of water and blushed at the thought of being so close to Thorin while out in the open. Nudity was definitely one thing but being naked and outside on top of Thorin was another. Though, technically, propriety demanded that I remember the first time the brothers laid with me and how it had been in a forest not more than twenty paces from the rest of the company. I looked around just to make sure that there were no other dwarves around except for Fili and Kili and hesitantly climbed up onto Thorin's lap...

From the look that Thorin gave me, I blushed even harder knowing that he expected me to face away from him but with my thoughts racing and thinking of our nudity, I just naturally went to climb onto his lap the way I would if we were going to be intimate. At the sight of my flushed cheeks, Thorin just smiled at the sight and started to lather up the soap as if nothing were the matter. 

His hands felt so amazing as it worked the soap against my skin, kneading my flesh and making me groan when he moved onto my back. The strength his fingers held as he rubbed circles along my skin was divine and I ended up leaning against his hairy chest, enjoying the way my position lent me to his ministrations and the way the sun warmed my skin while being mostly out of the water.

The sound of the water flowed around me, my eyes closed and almost wishing I could nap from my place against Thorin's chest. His fingers were lazy after the initial massage, cupping water up to wash the soap off me before just lightly trailing along my skin, every so often returning to his task of scrubbing soap along hidden curves. Once finished, he looked content from his spot below me, his upper body leaning against a rock and just basking in the sun. 

It really was a lovely day.

It was then that I noticed that Thorin's beard was still dirty and crusted with bits of blood and dirt; I leaned up from his chest so that I could cup some water into my palms and wet the coarse hair. His blue eyes stared at me as I soaked the dark hair and took the soap back from him for a moment, working up a lather so that I could gently massage the line of his jaw hidden underneath his beard. Just as I'd done when he massaged my back, his eyes closed and he leaned back against the rock. 

Thorin leaned his head back, exposing the line of his neck as I washed his face and only when I began to rinse away the soap did he finally speak, “You know this is something a wife would do.”

His voice subtly traced along my collarbone, possessive but nervous even as he spoke it, “Is that so?”

“Yes, our women have beards so it's a practice they reciprocate,” His eyes stared into mine even as he nudged me closer, “Very intimate and sacred, allowing someone so close to one's beard.”

How long had it been since Thorin and I last kissed? It must have been since Rivendell because when our lips met, my heart raced and butterflies fluttered in my belly. The groan in my ears, a trail of fingers along my thigh followed by his real fingers. I smiled at the notion that Thorin still remembered just how his voice affected me and deepened the kiss, tangling my fingers into his hair and pulling gently so that he exposed more of his neck.

Freshly washed, his neck tasted delicious and I kissed a line down that hard column of skin, pausing to suck on his adam's apple. He groaned low in his throat, his roughened hands squeezing at the flesh of my thighs. Already I felt him start to harden beneath me and I was about to travel lower when I felt Thorin tense and a pair of lips kiss along my back. 

A weight settled behind me and when I turned to look, I saw Kili there, soaked with his hair hanging in his face like an innocent puppy though his eyes were anything but, “Well, what do we have here?”

“What _do_ we have here?”

Thorin mimicked the words back, a grin on his face, both of us watching as Kili resumed his attention on my back, kissing a line up and nibbling on my shoulder. I squirmed at the feel of his lips, delighting in Thorin's eyes watching me intensely even as I squirmed in his lap and moaned from Kili's skilled fingers that reached around to cup my breasts. 

“I won.” Kili began, his voice kneading my backside, his body itself moving close enough so that Thorin was forced to adjust and make room for him. “Won what?”

With my eyes closed, I felt Kili behind me kissing along my shoulders but not to be ignored or stolen away, Thorin leaned forward and kissed along my clavicle, teething the line of my bone. It was torturous how they were teasing me.

“Fili saw what you two were doing but Bilbo's clothes also needed washing.” Kisses and fingers splayed along my body, “We played a game and I won.” I groaned when his fingers reached down and stroked along the inside of my thigh, intent on teasing, “He's grumbling and acting the perfect husband while I get to be here.”

Once Kili said it, I looked over to where most of my clothes sat unwashed and true to his story, there was Fili, a frown on his face even as he diligently scrubbed the dirt and stains from my jacket. If Kili was hoping for the mood to become more desperate and intense, he was mistaken because in that moment I wanted to go over to Fili and thank him for washing my clothing for me and even for noticing that I had washed all of their's before my own.

Thorin must have interpreted the look on my face perfectly because he was sighing and gently easing me away, “Kili, go help your brother. You can't just reap the benefits of such a relationship.”

I couldn't help but giggle at the look Kili gave to his Uncle, near sputtering and grasping with his fingers towards me even as I moved away to go back to the river bank. I noticed that Kili wasn't following me over to his brother and when I looked back to see what the two were up to, Thorin was pushing Kili down and grumbling something. “Honestly, your Mother would kill me if she saw how you washed.”

“Thorin didn't approve of the game?”

Fili's voice was a cute pinch on my bottom and I leaned over and kissed him before lying down on the soft sand of the river bank near him. “Wasn't that. Said that he shouldn't just reap the benefits.”

Fili snorted at that, “That's what he's always done.” Fili finished up cleaning my clothing and set them out on a nearby rock to dry. 

Off in the stream still, Kili gave up on trying to cooperate with Thorin, deciding that being treated like a child wasn't really was on the agenda anymore and tugged Thorin down until the older dwarf was forced to wrestle with him if he didn't want to get dunked. How wrestling in a river kept him from being dunked, I wasn't exactly sure because both of them went under the water and came back up, wet hair hanging heavily along their chests and faces, both of them refusing to give in to the other. 

“Honestly, dwarves and water... it's like you can't avoid wrestling whenever you get into it.”

It felt true considering that every time I ever saw the brothers or Thorin now in the water, they refused to let a bathing opportunity go by without engaging in some sort of manly sport that involved nearly drowning each other.

I couldn't help but sigh contentedly with the sounds of the two dwarves wrestling in the background, the gentle sway of the river in my ears, and Fili coming up to lay next to me. The sun still felt hot along my skin and I closed my eyes, burying my face into the crook of my elbow, turning so that Fili could run his fingers along my back, pausing every so often to lay a few kisses where his fingers touched.

“Thanks for washing my clothes.”

I breathed out, soft and inviting and when Fili leaned over to kiss me, I reached up to pull him closer, “Thank you for washing ours.”

“See! I knew you were helping him out!”

Both Fili and I looked over and saw the sight of Thorin and Kili coming up from the river, soaked and panting from their efforts while they were supposed to have been washing up. I giggled at the insinuation that Thorin was helping out his eldest nephew but didn't bother to try and enter into any debate with the dwarves. I just wanted to relax and enjoy the sun, wishing to dry off as best I could. 

It seemed that the others decided to follow my example, quieting down and laying beside me so that we all could relax under the rays of the hot sun.

Together we all laid there, quietly breathing and a random snore that indicated that one of us was sleeping but not Thorin since I could feel his hand running along my side. I didn't bother to open my eyes to check either since it really didn't matter who was touching me or sleeping just that they knew that I enjoyed being around them. Below me the heated sand soothed my skin even as it stuck to me and from above, the soft breeze rustled along my hair pleasantly. 

I smiled to myself because it truly was a great day and if this was what all adventures would be like, I would definitely think about becoming a full time adventurer.

A rustle of movement distracted me from my thoughts, and though I knew it was Thorin from the direction of it alone, I also felt Fili lift his head from where it had been resting near my ear. I was just about to open my eyes and see what the two were doing when I felt a heavy weight settle behind me; I opened my eyes and felt an eyebrow lift in surprise at the sight of Thorin straddling my thighs. I couldn't see anything else considering the angle was not exactly ideal but I could feel the weight of his hardness heavy against the cleft of my buttocks, hips rocking against me as he leaned down and planted a kiss between my shoulder blades.

I grinned at him, relaxing into his touch, “This doesn't help the exhibitionist debate.”

I couldn't deny the urge to tease him, groaning when he bit at my shoulder exactly where Kili had done so earlier. I squirmed underneath his touch as his fingers went low, tracing along a thigh before dipping inside and noticing just how wet I was from what little he did. My groan attracted Fili's attention and he was turning my head so that he could kiss me even as I moaned against his lips from the thick fingers of Thorin teasing at my entrance, fingers penetrating me when I arched back into his touch and needed more.

I felt him adjust behind me, his cock head ready to slide in and claim me in this most intimate way that we hadn't done before; from beside me, Fili's lips nipped and sucked and I reached up and dragged him down so that I could control the kiss.

I groaned at the sensation of the initial ache of a cock head stretching me around it, slow so that Thorin could feel me engulf every inch of him -

“Oi, laddie, you covered and decent?!”

“Fuck!”

My eyes opened in alarm and Thorin tore away from me so quickly that I was left shocked and breathless by the fact that we were all interrupted. At the same time, Fili rolled a polite distance away from me while I saw Kili grab Thorin's jacket and toss it over my naked body. Next to me on the other side, Thorin had rolled to sit up, facing away from Dwalin, his face in his hand and his other fist clenching. 

“What do you need, Dwalin?”

Thorin's voice was definitely irritated, prickling up my arms as he half turned towards Dwalin, trying to maintain his composure even though from my angle he was sporting a hard on and frustration the likes that even Dwalin wouldn't be able to ignore. 

“We're still naked back at camp. The clothes are here.”

Dwalin motioned around at the nearby rocks still littered with the clothes of the entire company and I snickered down into the sand at the logic and couldn't help but giggle when I saw that Dwalin looked entirely too pleased with himself.

“Give us ten minutes.”

Thorin grunted out, his voice still prickling along my arms. I watched Dwalin turn and head off back to camp. My attention was taken by the sound of the brothers laughing next to me, groping and pinches along my bottom that made me blush and hide my face. 

“Oh Mahal, Uncle!”  
“You should see your face!”

Fili and Kili clutched at their sides, completely uncaring at the sight that Thorin made, flushed down to his shoulders and looking embarrassed enough for any tween. Oh, I knew that the look he had right then was what prompted the laughter from his nephews but Thorin certainly made it easy looking like a tween that was caught with his hand up a young lass's skirts. 

“I didn't think Mister Dwalin could make us all feel younger than we already are.” Kili wheezed out, still curled around himself and laughing at his brother and Uncle being caught in such a situation. For once he wasn't the butt of any joke and he could actually laugh that he was the most decent of the four of us, a feat not easily done given that Kili was the most immature of us.

Speaking of immaturity... The very idea of Dwalin catching us and making us all feel young and prone to hormonal tendencies did bring up the question of our supposed youth. I looked at the two brothers, already known to be the youngest of the company but I also looked at Thorin, who I knew was one of the oldest. The way the three acted were like night and day at times but I wondered where their ages were in comparison to mine. It was a question I had never thought to ask before just because I knew that we were all of age. 

“How old are you three anyway?”

Immediately Kili sat up straight, all pretense and airs and puffed chests. “Not too young! We're totally of age!”

Thorin snorted from my other side, a quick rush of sensation along my wrist, before I heard him groan and lay down next to me. He looked to be breathing deeply, needing to calm himself physically and resign himself mentally to the fact that given the interruption and the impending visitors by the river bank, he wouldn't be getting any sort of release from his pent up frustrations. Despite not being able to do anything more, he looked amused by Kili's answer. 

“So what's too young for dwarves?”

I looked at the Durin's as they looked thoughtful for a moment, “Depends on race, really.”

“Well, let's start with my first question then; how old are you?”

Kili answered first, proud about being able to share his age, “I'm 77, but once I grow my beard in, I won't look like such a child anymore.” He rubbed at his cheeks full of stubble and seemed intent on seeing if he could start a fire just from the friction. I looked to Fili, who seemed like the logical next person to answer since the brothers did much of everything in succession. 

“Hm?” His eyes found mine, distracted for a moment because of how he had started to comb his hair, “I'm 82.”

I was amazed that they were the youngest of the group, treated like children at times by their peers and yet both were so much older than me already. I almost worried at Thorin's answer because if they were the youngest and so much older than I, how much older would Thorin be...?

“...Thorin?”

I looked back at him nervously and his eyes assessed the trepidation on my face before he rolled over and shrugged off the question, “It hardly matters.” His voice was nervous along my spine.

“Oh, Uncle, don't be like that. She wants to know.” Fili grinned at me, turning around to face me and starting to comb through my curls as naturally as it had always been his job. It was interesting how quickly I was included in such a familial routine and I allowed Fili to brush through my hair while I waited for Thorin to answer.

He remained silent for a moment longer until he sighed and ran his hand through his hair, “195, if you must know.”

I nearly choked on my own spit at the answer, desperately needing to clear my throat. The two brothers didn't think anything of the answer and I looked back and forth between the two generations before I caught Thorin looking at me. His eyes were hard but the forced expression on his face betrayed just how embarrassed he was by my reaction, “No, no! It's not your age, just... How old-” I didn't know how to word it. How to word that I wanted to know how young they would consider a lover. If they were so much older, what would they think of me being so young comparatively? Yes, I was of age in terms of being a Hobbit but surely the dwarves had their own thoughts of what they found inappropriate? 

“I mean, what's the youngest you've lain with in the past?”

Once my hair was finished being combed through, Kili grabbed the object and raked it haphazardly through his dark colored knots that was supposed to count for his hair, “As I said before, depends on race, really. Dwarf lass? 65 for me; anything younger than that and it's a little awkward.” I sat there, staring at him awkwardly, hoping that my eyes didn't betray how uncomfortable the answer made me. I felt like a baby when compared to the length of dwarf years, “Human? 44. I know Fili will lie with the young lasses!” His voice pinched at my bottom as he turned to eye his older brother, a quick slap on his shoulder, “You remember that one boy, the blonde? Was barely sixteen when you laid with him?”

Thorin shook his head, a gesture that looked all too familiar like he had already heard the story and was still embarrassed and horrified by it. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and rolled his eyes, probably wondering why he got stuck with such careless nephews.

Fili grabbed back the comb and shoved his brother down into the sand, “He looked older and he lied about her age, remember? Besides, I don't do that anymore! Anything younger than you, Kili and I won't touch it.” He leaned over away from Kili and offered the comb to me, where I then I turn offered it to Thorin. “Plus, the youngest human we've been with together wasn't 44, she was 41.”

“41? Really? Were we really drunk that night?”

“Oh, definitely,” The brothers' voices were eager and happy, pinching and prodding at my bottom the entire time they quipped back and forth, delighting in just light banter that allowed them to relive their more reckless days, which probably wasn't even that far off. Fili abandoned the idea of rough housing with his brother in turn for kneeling up and leaning my head up to start the braid he originally put into my hair, “And before you inquire, don't even bother asking Thorin about it either. He'll only lie with _elderly_ women. 50 and up and even that's cutting it close for him!”

I froze at the lighthearted comment, my body going rigid at the thought that Thorin would be pushing it in terms of what he found acceptable for someone at the age of 50. My birthday was in a few months so I would be 51 soon enough but if Thorin felt like he was already stretching it...

Just as Fili was finishing up the braid in my hair, I realized something. It should have been obvious but being so distracted by the learned ages and what the dwarves found acceptable as bed partners, I just noticed it. “Wait, wait... So, if you two are the younger than Ori, who's 135... I'm the youngest in the company?”

“Are you?” Kili's voice pinched so hard in such unrestrained joy that I actually flinched from it. When I looked up at him, his eyes glittered with the prospect of not actually being the youngest in the company.

At the same time, Thorin was turning me so that I faced the brothers, his fingers going for his inner coat pocket and pulling out one of his bigger golden beads that he placed in the back of his mane of hair. I sat there, allowing Thorin to set my head straight ahead to look at the brothers, his fingers already dividing my free hanging hair into sections and braiding them into an easy plait.

“So, how much younger are you?”

His voice trailed down my spine sensually but when I made to look up at him, he kept my head straight so I wouldn't ruin my braid. “Not too much,” I mumbled, not really wanting to answer him, “Only by about 145 years...”

Thorin's fingers stilled in my hair, just as he finished putting the golden bead at the bottom of my braid. Fili's eyes went wide at the realization but Kili was too busy counting on his fingers, his face a look of confusion. “Wait, that wouldn't be right. You'd be older than me.”

Fili rolled his eyes and smacked his brother, “This is why you should have paid attention when Balin was teaching us sums! She's 50, you dullard.”

“Oi! Don't call me a dullard!” Kili made to shove at his brother but before he did so, he stopped and looked at me closely, “Oh, so you're 50...?” It wasn't a big deal to the brothers since they had bedded younger but for Thorin, who considered anything 50 and less to be something like teenagers, it would no doubt be amusing for the younger brother...

Ah, yep, there it was. The dawning expression of understanding and the dropping of a jaw, covered by a hand that didn't want to exactly highlight how awkward this must have been for his Uncle.

Both of the brothers caught the sight of something and without any warning, they both burst out into laughter. I was so confused by it that I looked at them before I whipped around to catch the most entertaining sight of Thorin, his face nearly hidden behind a curtain of hair. He looked pained and completely at a loss, “My sister is going to have a field day with this.”

I wanted to know what he meant by it but something was lying against my shoulder and I flicked it back without thinking; I was confused by what I moved away from my shoulder though and finally stopped for a moment to take in what we just talked about and what had been happening while we were talking. 

I stared at the braid in my hair, a new one that completely kept the hair from my face and neck to combat the summer heat. Thorin had braided my hair. My mind went back to Fili and how Thorin and he argued when the brother braided my hair. I thought about what Fili told me about braids and what they meant. 

Thorin had braided my hair. 

Oh.

_Oh!_

I grinned at the notion of Thorin being teased by his sister because he claimed a woman who was considered nearly a child in their own culture. 

I reached over and couldn't help but want to comfort him and reassure him that it was alright but the brothers were still laughing so hard at their Uncle. Just to show them a what for, I pushed them both back into the sand and laughed as they sputtered and laughed.

The only thing that made the moment more amusing was the reappearance of the company, a flurry of having to put Thorin's jacket back over me, and the sight of just way too many hairy limbs and penises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I have named this chapter, "The Unexpected Adventures of Kili the Cockblock?"


	38. Lessons of a Warrior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thorin decides that Bilbo needs to be trained to use her sword...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I blame writerchick0214 for igniting in me a great love of Thorin's neck that always should be shown off instead of hidden underneath that glorious mane of hair.
> 
> That being said, I liked writing this chapter if only because it got to show off how amazing of a teacher Thorin is.

I woke with the soft beginnings of the blue dawn high in the sky by a soft touch along the curve of my back, sure fingers stroking down against my jacket until they were able to retreat underneath the heavy fabric. I smiled at the feel of fingers. A tickle of sensation and a soft chuckle, the touch growing more assured now that it knew I was awake. I sighed into the touch, loving it even as I hated it because after how far we had walked the day before after washing up in the stream, all I wanted to do was sleep until Thorin woke us up. 

I knew that the presence on my back was Fili, having fallen asleep between Thorin and he and woken only briefly in the middle of the night when Thorin took second shift of watch duty. 

The touch was firm, moving underneath my vest and pressing to the lighter fabric of my shirt. Fili's lips kissed the back of my neck and inhaled deeply the scent of my skin as he moved closer. 

“Can't sleep?”

I smiled at the insistence of his kisses, the way his hand gripped my waist and pulled me back so that my back pressed flat against his torso. “I have slept enough.”

I chuckled at the statement, feeling the roughness of his voice pulled fresh from sleep along my backside where it started to pinch before disappearing. “Ah, so you feel that it's polite to keep me from getting satisfactory rest?”

His fingers unbuttoned my vest and pushed the edges of it aside so that his hand could splay flat against my belly, “Unless there's another reason why you keep me from sleep?”

Figuring that his hand would travel downwards and show me his want for sexual intimacy, I was surprised when Fili's hand actually ventured up and urged me to turn onto my back. At the same time, he lifted up and positioned himself so that his upper body hovered over me, eager to kiss me as soon as I was flat on my back and looking up at him. His blue eyes gazed down on me lovingly and his mustache tickled my cheeks each time he went to kiss me. 

For each moment that he could have spent explaining to me why he wanted me awake, he instead pressed a small peck of a kiss to my cheek, on the tip of my nose, against the closed lid of my eye. Each lovely brush of his lips pulled a sigh from me, “Dare I say all the reasons?” His knuckles traced along the soft skin of my cheek, “That I love you.” 

He kissed my forehead, “That I missed you?” I grinned at that one because ever since our bath yesterday, he had been at my side, “That I wanted a moment alone with you?”

I looked at him, truly looked at him and let my eyes take in the sight of how handsome he was and the way his voice brushed up against me in all the ways to show me how much he cared about me and wanted me.

“You are not satisfied?”

I asked seriously because given the nature of our relationship with Thorin and Kili, it was always important that we were receiving everything that we needed from one another. It was the benefit of being involved in such a dynamic and if Fili were not content with it, I wanted him to understand that all he needed to do was talk to me and we would figure something out.

My eyes told him the extent of my feelings for him and how I wished for him to unload all of his worries if he had any. In response, he merely sighed and let his head fall to my chest, clutching me to him tightly and adjusting so that he was comfortably listening to my heartbeat. Even as I tried to calm it, I felt it race underneath my skin.

“No, it is enough. I am simply greedy.”

His voice curled along my skin possessively and I settled my hand in his hair, my knuckles every so often brushing against the back of his neck; when my knuckles touched along the more sensitive skin of his neck, Fili would breathe a bit deeper and nuzzle into my chest. 

“Is there something bothering you?”

I watched the flutter of his eyelashes as his eyes opened and stared ahead at the grass we laid upon; he realized that I had figured out the real reason for why he truly woke me all alone in the middle of the morning. Kili was an earlier riser than both Fili and I but even he did not wake before dawn normally. That was something usually Thorin did but he was not beside us this morning either. If Fili wanted to talk to me about anything without alerting the others of any conversation, now would be the moment to do so.

I was curious as I watched him lean up and look at the sleeping form of his brother, checking to make sure that he was still asleep before he spared a glance at the nearby company. Seeming to be satisfied, he edged along the side of my body until he was nestled close and his head resting in the crook of my neck. Such vulnerability was unknown to me when it came to Fili, his need to want to be comforted by me in such a way something that I was unused to.

I worried as my hand went back to stroke his hair that what I did was somehow not enough but Fili did not say anything against what I did. He accepted it and sighed into the comforting touch, maneuvering until his hand came up and threaded his fingers with mine. His hands were rough against mine and I delighted in the difference of size.

“Bilbo, there has been something I've been wanting to get off my chest for a while now,” He wasn't looking at me as he explained, his eyes connected to the sight of our fingers playing, “I finally feel comfortable enough to tell you.”

I stayed still, not wanting to disturb Fili from what he was about to say, knowing that whatever it was its importance was something not to be denied. His voice was nervous and trembling along my bottom, all the evidence I ever would need that while he was willing to tell me, he was very much uncomfortable doing so. “The nature of my relationship with Kili, it's a bit complicated. The way we are is actually-"

“Ah, you two are awake already.”

Fili tensed and I looked away from my hand in surprise at the sight of Thorin hovering over us, “Good morning, Thorin.”

“Good morning, Miss Baggins.” My eyebrow raised at the use of his more formal nickname for me. He was all business this morning for some reason. “Good morning, Fili. Did you both sleep well?”

Fili sighed and moved away, sitting up to acknowledge his Uncle fully, “We did. We both woke early and were just talking. Is there something you wish us to do?”

Thorin waved him off, “No, not from you. Miss Baggins, Dwalin and I would like you to accompany us and please bring your sword with you.”

With that, Thorin left Fili and I and went back over to the other side of camp where I noticed for the first time Dwalin sat, busily chewing away on a piece of dried meat. I was more than a little put off by the request to join the two dwarves only because Fili had been right in the middle of telling me something important; as soon as I looked over to the blonde dwarf, his face looked tired and he was scrubbing his palm along his bearded jaw. 

“Fili?”

When his head swayed back to look at me, his expression was hidden for a moment before he seemed to realize what he was doing; just as quickly as his face were a blank slate that I couldn't read, his eyes softened and he smiled at me. He reached out and pinched my cheek, “Should be an interesting morning for you. Kili and I will come by later after he wakes up.”

I nodded and stood from my warm spot in the grass, going immediately for my sword that was nearby and doing the familiar motions of attaching it to my hip that I had become so used to. I tried not to think of the conversation Fili was about to discuss with me just because whatever I would need my weapon for with the two older dwarves, I knew it was not something to be done while distracted. 

As soon as I was in front of them, Thorin held up a piece of dried meat for me to chew on and before I could ask anything, we were off. Obviously Thorin did not have to mention to someone else to watch over the camp since Gandalf and Fili were up but a quick glance behind his shoulder assured him that someone was alert and watching over the sleeping company enough to settle his nerves. 

I wasn't sure where we were going but it was far enough away from the camp that we wouldn't be a bother to the still sleeping dwarves, not that that was really anything to concern ourselves with. Aside from Thorin, the rest of the dwarves slept so soundly that it was hard to believe that even the ones trained as warriors could sleep through the things that they did. Though that wasn't exactly fair to say, Dwalin was like Thorin in that respect, in that he survived off very little sleep.

I hadn't yet buttoned up my vest again and I was grateful for it considering that the morning was annoyingly hot, which only made me frown at the thought of what the weather would be like when the sun actually came up. From beside me, Thorin and Dwalin wore their normal gear and I briefly entertained the thought of one of them passing out from heat exhaustion during the upcoming travel of the day.

Onward we walked until we reached a glade in the forest where we stopped as soon as Thorin looked around and deemed that the area was acceptable for their purposes. Purposes that I was still not enlightened to but I figured it could only be one of two things since I had my sword with me.

“Miss Baggins, Dwalin and I share the most utmost regard for your courage against the Pale Orc,” Thorin began, his voice a trail of fingers up my calf. From next to him, I saw Dwalin nod briefly before heading off into the forest line again, “But that being said, we do not wish for a repeat performance for more reasons than one.”

“What do you mean?”

“We're gunna train ya, laddie, so that you can fight with yer poker.”

I turned at the sound of Dwalin's gruff voice against my cheek, my eyes instantly going down to the sight of three sticks in his hand, all of them the near length of what my own sword was. “Train me? Like as in sword fighting?”

“Yes, all dwarves are taught the basics when they are children. Your sword, Miss Baggins?” Thorin held out his hand so that I could give him my weapon. I was eager to comply with his wishes only because I was nervous of the overall prospect of the lesson and because I was excited for whatever they wanted to show me. With my sword in his hand, it looked as small as I could make it look big and he held it up, momentarily surprised by how light it truly was.

“Tell me what you see when you look at it.”

My mind went blank even as I stared at it, taking in every detail that I could of the weapon that Gandalf gifted to me from the troll cave. I saw that it was shorter than a regular sword but that it was curved more elegantly. I had no idea if that was supposed to mean anything. It had a rather pointed end compared to Thorin's Orcrist and Gandalf's Glamdring and that was the only answer I could reasonably say without feeling like too much of an idiot out of my depth.

I half expected Thorin to look at me as if I were a sad little Hobbit, a scowl on his face as he was once again reminded that a lot of what I'd done on the night of the orc raid was a testament to how lucky I was rather than skill. Thorin did not scowl but he did sigh deeply, “That is true. It does have a pointed end... what else?”

He turned it in hand so that I could see it, take in more of its details.

“Um, it's curved?”

Dwalin wanted to snigger at the comment but withheld as best he could. I felt my cheeks flush just from the embarrassment because I was sure that all dwarf children knew what the obvious answer was. Thorin glanced at Dwalin before handing me my sword again. Upon giving me back my weapon, he pulled out Orcrist and showed me the blade. “What can you see with this one?”

“It's curved on the one side?”

Thorin clenched his jaw, probably forcing himself to remain polite given who he was talking to. I was not one of his nephews and I was no dwarf. Whatever was obvious to a fighting culture was lost on me and I would take no attitude from him concerning this. If he pushed too hard on this, I would leave and head back to camp without another thought given. I was no fighter and what more, I didn't want to be. I could name hundreds of different flowers just from description alone but to name any one feature on a sword and tell its significance was a lost art to me. 

“It is.” He clipped out, a quick sensation along my elbows, “How do you think that factors into how I fight with it?”

I thought back to how I saw Thorin fight and spar with it, moments when he most likely thought I hadn't been watching. “You slash with it a lot.”

Thorin's mouth finally cracked a tiny grin, a glance over to Dwalin before coming back to my face, “And with yours?”

Again, I looked down at the sword held in my hand. “It has no such edge...”

I could offer no more because I honestly did not know what my sword could tell me from visual inspection alone how that factored into how it was made to be used. All I knew was that it was an Elvish blade and that because of its length in comparison to its purposed race, it was most likely a dagger to them. Thorin seemed to take pity on me and offered, “How did you attack the orc with it?”

“Oh! I stabbed it!” 

Dwalin nodded, a wide grin on his face in remembrance of what I looked like when I pounced on the orc and literally stabbed it until it was dead. While the memory of killing the orc did not inspire the emotions it did for the dwarves, I at least was grateful that I saved Thorin's life. “A good bunch of stabs too, laddie!”

“Aye, your natural inclination with your sword is to stab,” Thorin passed Dwalin his Orcrist and took again my weapon; he demonstrated his point by tapping on the very tip of the blade, “Its end is pointed but not as finely as Orcrist's. What this means to us is that this sword is made to pierce armor. It can slash as well but from its size and your height, its strength will be found through thrusting and stabbing motions. If we can demonstrate?”

I nodded because I was eager to see what Thorin was going to show me. I watched as Thorin shrugged off his heavier coat and felt around in his pockets until he looked at me, “Do you think I can borrow your tie?” 

My hands went to my ascot ribbon that I almost completely forgot I wore except for the odd moment where I realized it was too tight or that sweat collected on it uncomfortably. I untied it without protest and offered it to him, watching as he took it and offered me my sword again in turn. His hands expertly took his long mane of hair and twisted it until it was high on his head and bound tightly with my ribbon. My mouth watered from the sight of that neck so exposed compared to its usual hidden state and I shook my head to snap myself out of my thoughts of wanting to nibble on the column of skin. 

He held out his hand again for my sword and I offered it, watching as he took it in hand again and walked over to where Dwalin was waiting with Orcrist. “What we're going to show you can be done with axes but it's simpler to show you with swords.”

I stood, watching over the pair as they positioned themselves steps away from one another front to front; their positions weren't anything like what I'd seen them use before in the past while fighting,but I figured Dwalin's was because he normally used his axes and not swords. Despite not being a normal user of swords, he did not seem to be phased by Orcrist, holding it as if he had done so already thousands of times before. 

Thorin was impressive even with my shortened and tiny looking sword in his hand. He did not hold it two handed as he did with Orcrist at times but only in one hand with his body turned towards me. “For you, Miss Baggins, remember to keep your feet planted to the ground like so.” 

He positioned his feet so that one faced Dwalin and the other faced towards me; he braced himself, squatting so that his legs were slightly bent, and bent his arm so that the sword followed the line of Dwalin's eventual attack.

“Note my feet,” He leaned lightly on both of them, “Positioned like this, I can freely move back and forth. Dwarves have a natural tendency to stand our ground and not move, which can make for easy targets if not experienced. This technique forces us to move.” Dwalin readied himself and Thorin focused on the taller dwarf, “We're first going to show you a basic use of the technique; its name is derived from a mix of Khuzdul and Elvish but it can be roughly translated to _'Thrust and Step'_ ”

Without checking to see if Thorin were ready, Dwalin moved forward and came at Thorin so fast that I was surprised by how easily and quickly Thorin moved away from him; again and again he stepped back, always keeping Orcrist out of range but always able to throw the attack off balance so that the sword's tip could not easily get to him. Every time Dwalin brought Orcrist around and down, Thorin just as easily knocked it off with an easy flick of his wrist, stepping back when Dwalin came too close and regaining ground when he found an opening.

The shortened length of my own weapon should have put Thorin at a distinct disadvantage and maybe it was a testament to Thorin's skill but he did not seem at all inconvenienced by my weapon's lack of reach. He defended against Dwalin easily and when Orcrist was knocked off target again, Thorin suddenly took the initiative and went on the offense. Much of the same techniques came to apply to Dwalin, knocking my sword off balance but with the ferocity of Thorin's approach, he did not lose ground until Dwalin growled and slashed outward. 

In response, Thorin darted away so that all Dwalin swung at was empty space and before he could bring Orcrist back to defend or possibly attack again, Thorin lunged forward and brought up the tip of the sword so that it angled upwards at his chin.  
“Give.”

The line of Thorin's legs was crouched and straightened so that most of his weight seemed to rest on his bent leg but he didn't look unsteady and when Dwalin did concede the mock fight, Thorin rocked back onto his back foot to stand up straight. 

“That is the Thrust and Step. Forces you to maintain your connection with your opponent while at the same time managing your footwork.”

Thorin's voice was authoritative, a short clipping against my elbow that made me nod and feel as much the student as I truly was. I watched as Dwalin stepped closer and readjusted Orcrist in his grip so that he could attack with it again. This time Thorin squatted and readied his sword again, “This lesson will purely be about parrying and lunges. You'll need to parry any attacks directed at you like so.”

Finished with the sentence, Dwalin swiftly demonstrated each angle that he could attack Thorin, each time being parried by Thorin. Orcrist's blade made for Thorin's torso but with a simple shift of his arm, the blade of my sword parried the attack and forced Dwalin to pull back to reconsider a new angle. When he went in for his arm, Thorin once again shifted his arm and knocked Orcrist off balance. A quick knock designed only to misdirect the attack so that it would miss.

“Each move is designed to use minimal energy so it's very good for beginners.”

Dwalin and Thorin maintained the simple looking system of movements, Dwalin not bothering to mention where he was going and Thorin easily being able to parry off each attack that came his way.

“Bring over two sticks, Miss Baggins.”

I did as instructed, picking up two of the sticks that Dwalin held earlier, passing one to Dwalin who took it and passed Orcrist back to Thorin. At the same time, Thorin sheathed my sword for me at my waist and directed me to face Dwalin. I was nervous that I would be training against someone as big as Dwalin but Thorin did not seem to bat an eyelash at the difference in size.

“Take the stance.”

I did my best to copy what I saw Thorin do, lining up my feet about where I thought I saw him do so earlier and squat down as he did. He took a moment to look at my copied stance before he nudged my back foot up closer to a more comfortable spot; he did not stop there, adjusting my other foot and moving my arm so that it bent more comfortably. 

“Hand firm but not too tightly; put most of the pressure of holding your stick on your fingers rather than the palm.”

His stern voice was on my elbow, traveling up my forearm as he adjusted my fingers, noting the line of my arm before he nudged that down a bit. “Relax the arm. Elbow close to the body so that you can move efficiently.”

He inspected my stance again but he disliked the way my vest hung off my body and ended up pulling it off and setting it on his arm while he motioned for me to go back into position so he could adjust anything as needed. This time the corrections were not as many and he seemed content with that, copying the stance himself.

“The entire point of this technique is the use of your footwork. If you cannot attack, you must defend by backing away from danger. Move like me.”

He moved forward two paces, feet taking sure steps forward and when his front foot went forward, his back foot followed. I copied it, moving forward two paces all the while feeling horribly stiff. “Take two steps backwards in the same manner.”

He showed me how to do it and I mirrored him, finding it easier to back up than it was to move forward. “Keep yourself steady as you do the footwork. Move forward when an opening shows itself,” He moved forward towards Dwalin, “and when you need to evade, move backwards.” He stepped back away from Dwalin and out of his reach. “A calm head will keep your footwork from becoming sloppy and accidentally tripping yourself.”

He motioned for me to do some of the footwork exercises, moving forwards and backwards on his vocal command that felt like a beat against my elbow every time he spoke out loud in the morning glade. Eventually Dwalin was called in to assist with the lesson, taking over the direction that I would need to go in. Whenever he came forward, I backed up and every so often, I was reminded that I needed to move forward to try and gain some ground again. 

As Dwalin and I went back and forth on this, me trying my best not to trip over my own feet, Thorin called out corrections to my stance, repeating them until I figured out the adjustment myself. 

“You seem to have the footwork down for now. Focusing on the offensive portion of this technique, there are two things you can do. You'll stab no matter what you do but you can do so either using the lunge or the feint. Feints will be another lesson so don't worry about that for now.” 

Thorin came in behind me and gently gripped onto the elbow of my arm that held onto the stick. “Think of your defense like you would a clock. Dwalin will aim high and you will liken it to a spot on a clock.” He waited for Dwalin to designate with his stick where he would strike; immediately I tensed at the idea of him hitting me but Thorin's grip on my elbow squeezed to make me focus, “Don't tense up. Look at where the stick is; liken it to a clock face. Where is it?”

The stick pointed in the vague direction of my shoulder, “About ten o'clock.”

“Very good, so defend your ten.” His touch moved my arm so that when Dwalin's stick came close, my own stick parried it off course. When Thorin called for it again, Dwalin chose a different spot near my opposite arm, “Three o'clock.”

“Defend your three then.” Once again as his voice tickled along my arm, his light touch guided my arm to parry against Dwalin's stick. “Keep your wrist straight and unbroken and your elbow tucked in like so. Maintain this position right here as your default; always return to it when waiting to defend or readying for the offense. On your own now.”

By natural occurrence, once Thorin was away from my side, it became that much harder to discern exactly where Dwalin was going to attack. What felt like a three to me was a two and more than once Dwalin's stick made contact with my arm or my torso. I tried to focus but my legs were beginning to tire from being in such an awkward position for so long and upon sighting it, Thorin corrected my stance, telling me to evenly distribute my weight. I apparently had a tendency to lean back against the side of my right foot.

Eventually to help me just get the motions down, Thorin began to call out the numbers for Dwalin to attack at and for me to parry against. Once he did that, it seemed to get better for me and I I began to get the hang of the simple motion of parrying. The lesson itself was interesting in comparison to the actual mock fight that the two had shown me, the movements in training feeling too controlled compared to earlier.

“Now, from a parry to an offensive. Parry your eleven.” 

On his leader's command, Dwalin went for my eleven and I parried it in a way that I had become used to, however, when I parried this time Dwalin did not back off and resume his normal stance and ready himself for another attack. “Extend the arm and attack.”

I extended my arm in a way that I had seen Thorin do during the mock fight but upon me starting to lean forward, Dwalin stopped me. “Just use the arm, laddie. The body comes later.”

I extended my arm and Dwalin stayed still and let the stick make contact. 

“Again, parry your three.”

Again, Dwalin and I did the steps, once again parrying and this time when I went to attack, I extended my arm swiftly to poke at Dwalin's unguarded shoulder.

“Very good. Take two steps back and we'll teach you how to lunge.”

Two paces behind where I'd grown used to standing, I was waiting for Thorin to instruct me on how to lunge and to demonstrate, he came up beside me and copied my stance once more. “To lunge, you will need to be fast and nimble; you will stay with your feet in the same position but you'll kick out with your front foot like so.” 

He demonstrated it, kicking out with his front foot and lunging forward. “Arm straight before you do so, kick forward, and don't put your knee past your ankle.”

He stood back into a regular position and motioned for me to try the movement a few times to get the hang of it without the actual need for combat. Once he figured that I had the motion of it down, Dwalin came forward with his stick and I backed up to avoid it and saw that he aimed for my shoulder; I parried it and when Dwalin was off balanced by the parry, I lunged forward and felt a rush of satisfaction that I managed to make my stick connect with Dwalin's chest. 

“Weight off your hip, you'll tire yourself with that stance. Again.”

We did it again and again until it almost became second nature, doing the lunge and making sure that my weight was evenly distributed and getting back into normal position only to do it again. Each time Dwalin picked a new place to target and each time I was able to parry it and lunge forward. 

“Normal speed now.”

“Oh wow!” A sharp slap on my bottom startled me and I went off balance from the shock of it. At the same time Dwalin and Thorin looked over and saw the brothers and Balin approach from the line of trees.

Balin smiled in our general direction, “I've not seen these lessons since the brothers were wee lads.”

I assumed Balin meant to watch from the way that he sat down on the grass, both the brothers flanking him and looking at the training with a look of tender nostalgia. “Don't let us interrupt, Uncle.”

Kili's voice was a pinch that made me blush from the encouragement behind it and Thorin cleared his throat to direct my attention back to him. 

“Take up your stance again and this time at normal speed.”

With an audience, I became nervous just from the idea that I would now be showing off in front of Balin and the brothers, who had gone through the same training as I. It was nerve wracking to think that they most likely had picked up on the lessons easier than I had and for a moment, I was a bit too anxious to do anything. It took Thorin coming up to my side and whispering in my ear to make me focus again on the task at hand.

“You're doing well. You can hold your own against Dwalin but if you want, I'll have you go against Kili instead for your spar.”

His voice made me shiver from how it trailed up my along my neck and I smiled at the note of confidence that was in his voice concerning my ability to take on Dwalin for my own spar. It also became obvious from his offer that he outed his own nephew and where he sat in terms of skill for this particular technique. Such a thought was comforting because this technique wasn't just child's play and was something at least one of the brothers still struggled with. 

He moved away back to a respectable distance and motioned for me to continue.

Once again I squatted down and readied myself, completely unknowing what this technique would be like when it would come at me at full speed. It was hard enough getting the basics down at a slower speed but now that I was expected to do it all at normal fighting speeds with very little preparation... the very thought made me nervous and my adrenaline pump. 

“Start at three and go from there.”

I watched Dwalin and I eyed his stick, trying to discern where he would attack even though Thorin already said that it would start at three....

I panicked when Dwalin darted forward to swing his stick at my three and given my natural instinct to flee and hide from danger, I just barely stopped myself from giving up my stance and backing up and tripping over my own feet. My eyes couldn't keep up with Dwalin coming at me at full speed and I did the only thing I was supposed to do in this situation. 

I backed up, feet propelling me backwards with an ease I did not calculate being as swift as it originally appeared to be. While in training the footwork seemed clunky and overly complicated when a simple step forward could have been enough; now that I was actually fighting against Dwalin, I found the footwork made it easier. One foot back, keep the other foot close. Back up, back up. Get away from Dwalin until I could ready myself and defend against the attack. 

Because I had evaded the only known attack that Thorin dictated at the beginning of the exercise, Dwalin did me no favors and went for any other target besides the three that was called out earlier. 

“Come on, laddie. You have to stand your ground sometime. Your enemy won't always let you run away.”

Dwalin encouraged me, his voice a rough brush against my cheek and I found it ironic that this technique that I learned was used to teach the dwarves to leave their ground and yet their most common instruction was to stand the very ground I was supposed to abandon.

I wasn't comfortable with any opening that I felt I could see, all of them being entirely too fast for my liking but when I saw Dwalin going for my shoulder, I knew that I didn't want to back up from that or give him the possibility of actually making contact with my shoulder and the shock from it making me drop the stick from my hand if he connected. I did my best to remember the training, the movements that I repeated until I became bored with it. 

So used to me backing away, Dwalin wasn't expecting for me to finally stand my ground and parry the attack, a push of my stick against his that threw his point off balance and left an opening that I could use. I went forward to attack, extending my arm out but Dwalin parried it and it forced me to step back and regain my control. 

The way that I was fighting was like a giant game of turns. 

Was all battle like this? The time against the orc had been far too fast but had there been turns involved with that? I pounced on him and sent him to the ground, then he rolled us over where I responded by stabbing him. After that, it was just a matter of dominating any chance he got to overthrow me. 

So fighting was a giant game of turns? Well, if there was one thing that hobbits were good at, it was the notion of games. 

Again, Dwalin came at me and I parried the attack but as soon as I had done so, I thought I saw my opening where I could attack. My turn. I missed from him backing up. His turn. He came at me, a full lunge that made me back up so that he would miss. My turn. 

As he moved to stand back up into his normal stance, I used my agility and lunged forward; it took advantage of my smaller size and how light I was on my feet, for quicker than Dwalin could get back to his full height, the point of my stick was under the line of his ribs and I was too stunned to do anything more than keep my stance.

He stayed still, almost as if he were waiting and Thorin did nothing until I figured out what I had to do. “Give?”

Dwalin was still for a long moment until he grinned and lifted his stick away in a gesture of yielding, “Aye, I give.”

Claps and cheers from the sidelines erupted and I looked over and was stunned to see that besides Fili, Kili, and Balin, Bifur and his cousins were standing off to the side and cheering. Gandalf was also smirking at me and clapping while Gloin nodded his head in respect. 

I felt the embarrassment return and went to hide my face from view when I overheard Gloin comment about how long it had been since he'd seen the technique being taught.

"Reminds me of the times when I taught it to my boy Gimli." 

I felt my face redden with the knowledge that like much of their culture being so immersed in battle from an early age, the technique truly was something that they taught to their children!

“Miss Baggins, you're ready to spar. This time anything is to be used in your defense and offense.”

I focused on the authoritative tone of Thorin's voice who was undisturbed by the appearance of more people around this training session. I tried my best to focus on Dwalin as I got back into proper stance but Thorin had to correct my positioning again and lifted my arm to be at the correct height. It was obvious that I was growing tired from the training but Thorin said nothing in response to it. 

“It's good that they're here anyway; rarely is battle a match between two opponents. Focus your attention on Dwalin while making sure that no one catches you unawares.”

Thorin motioned to start, this time not giving me the advantage of knowing which direction the attack would come in from. I had to watch Dwalin to see where he would attempt to strike. He was fast for his size and when he extended his arm to strike at me, I barely had time to even realize he was going for my torso before I went to parry. 

The spar was much the same as it was before but at some point, I realized that Dwalin and I were no longer going back and forth the way we had done before. So focused I was on maintaining eye contact with his stick and him in general, I didn't notice that we circled one another, still following the same back and forth pattern. With the addition of more unrestricted movement, it made the footwork a little harder. The trick to the entire technique besides the footwork was apparently keeping your arm from parrying or defending too heavily in one direction as when I did so, Thorin immediately called out to keep the elbow close to my torso so that I wouldn't leave myself open to attacks.

In response to the command, Dwalin tried to make me break from my correct stance, doing almost everything in his power to make me extend too far but each time, I tried my best to prevent him from catching me open. At the same time, Dwalin was better at making sure to keep any openings from me as well.

Finally when it seemed I had an opening to really go on the offensive, a rogue stick out of the corner of my eye made me jump back in surprise. I hadn't been keeping an eye on the spectators and in response, Thorin had most likely signaled for Fili to come in and join the fight with the third stick that still sat by the sidelines. Given how many sticks Dwalin had collected earlier, this was always the plan but just instead of Thorin, it would be Fili taking over. 

Now with the spar being two on one, my nerves frayed and I grew more anxious just thinking about my footwork. Thorin was confident that I could handle it or else he wouldn't have called in Fili but it seemed so much more overwhelming with two people I was forced to watch for any impending attacks. 

“Fili, your feet are too far apart.” 

The quick glance that I spared to see Fili correcting his stance provided Dwalin the necessary distraction to try and attack me and I backed away out of his reach so quickly I nearly unbalanced myself. Fili and Dwalin were relentless and more than once I wanted to call the whole thing off, so busy dodging and parrying and trying to remember my proper stance. 

Through it all Thorin was a proper teacher, diligently pointing out when stances were off or when I defended too widely and lost my protection. When it became obvious that I was being mentally overwhelmed by the two and the corrections, Thorin commanded Dwalin and Fili back to take turns and then slowly let me take them both again. He dictated the flow for me by calling out which numbered areas to attack and I was able to get back into the mental routine of defending, this time going from spot to spot in rapid succession. Thorin's assistance in this helped me greatly for when he stopped doing it, I was able to follow along against Fili and Dwalin, parrying and trying to get my own offensive in. 

Dwalin was much better at the technique than Fili was, who often had to be corrected for his stance and how wide his feet went. It was only a matter of time that I needed to wait, a darting of my eyes to see when Fili's legs went too wide and before Thorin could correct it. Dwalin himself left no openings and kept his stance perfect, a sign that he was a true warrior already tried and tested in battle and most likely incorporating this technique into everything he did. It was natural to him in a way that it wasn't to Fili so when I noticed the elder brother's feet went too wide, I parried off Dwalin's attack and ducked to the side, lunging forward and reaching to strike at Fili. 

If his feet had been in the correct placement, he would have been able to back up as easily as Dwalin and I could but with his feet so wide, he wasn't able to step back as quickly without fumbling. He was taken off guard by my direct attack against him and in his stumble, I went for what would be a hit against his chest. It was a mistake on my part to attack Fili because as soon as I did so, he caught my stick under his armpit and kept me from pulling it free.

An imitation of true battle that I hadn't been expecting. 

Dwalin wouldn't be stopped from my distraction and in real battle, pulling my sword from a body would take some time as well. I remembered how long it took to pull my sword from the skull of the warg and from Fili's grip and the grin on his face, he wouldn't let me have my stick back even if I tugged. I had a split second to decide if I wanted to abandon my weapon and fight Dwalin bare handed or-!

I twisted and grabbed Fili's stick that was still held in his hand and spun us so that when Dwalin brought his stick up to strike, he got Fili in the back. I couldn't help but laugh at the sound of Fili making his death noises, cursing and sputtering that he would get revenge for his family name before falling off to the side with my stick still held underneath his arm. 

At the same time as Fili fell, I went for Dwalin but he was not distracted by Fili's display as much as I was. Just as I went to attack him, he parried off my stick and took advantage of my lack of control to ram his shoulder into my chest. I went down quicker than I even realized I could, a gasp of air escaping my lungs even as I stared up confused at the sky. 

I wondered how it happened but before I could really think on it, Dwalin was above me ready to finish the job; I remembered Gollum and the orc and knew how fierce I could be even while down on the ground. To combat the fact that I didn't have a stick anymore and was down on the ground, I used my hobbit instincts and kicked out at his waist. 

Fili laughed at the sight of Dwalin stumbling back with the blow – not even expecting the force he got from my dainty looking legs – but that wouldn't deter him and he was coming at me again. I had to give the dwarves some credit for their tenacity but I wouldn't be taken down so easily even by someone I considered a friend. I got back to my feet and went to shoulder him, realizing upon impact just what a terrible idea that was when faced against such a dwarf. It might have worked against a goblin who was a lot less burly than Dwalin but I hadn't been thinking of how he was far more solid and amazingly steady on his feet. 

I practically bounced off his chest but I couldn't get away either; in the next second, I squeaked at the feel of his giant hands on my arm and near my waist, hoisting me up so I lost what ground I actually had. I panicked at being hefted up and over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, now without any means to defend myself. I knew I could hear the raucous laughter of our spectators as they took in how quickly the spar devolved. 

Thorin should have intervened at some point but he was curiously watching just to see what I would do in such a situation and I did the first thing that came to mind. I grabbed Dwalin's hair and dislodged from his grip, kicking out and squirming until he was forced to let me go. If he had noticed the grip on his hair, he wouldn't have so easily let me free but unfortunately for him, he didn't. As I twisted to fall behind him, he certainly felt it as he went down with a cry of pain. 

In a rush, I looked around for something to use against him but he was already up and recovering. I felt myself panting from the rush of activity, the fact that I was tired, and from the astonishment that nothing could keep Dwalin down for long at all! He was the epitome of dwarf warrior in a culture based around fighting and mining. 

Unfortunately for him, he still didn't mind my height versus his.

When he came in close to finish me off with his stick, my foot shot out but this time I didn't go to kick him.

“Do you yield, you squirmy little Hobbit?”

He was grinning down at me, pleased by how I managed to defend myself for so long against him and how dirty I resorted to fighting when the cards were against me. 

I smirked back, “Do you?”

Dwalin was surprised by the question and he poked my neck with his mock weapon, “You do realize that you have a sword at your throat right?”

I nodded and darted my eyes to look down at where my foot was; he finally looked down and saw that the ball of my foot was hovering near the center of his legs. A fatal wound I would receive but not without kicking him in his balls before I went down.

He burst out into laughter, leaning back away from me and holding out his paw of a hand so that he could help me up. He easily swung me up, clapping me roughly on the back all the while still laughing. Thorin, who had stood nearby watching the entire match had a light smirk on his own face but was also shaking his head.

“Well, it's hard to figure out who the winner was.” He chuckled with a smile, his voice a sensual touch against my spine, “While you may have been killed in battle, Miss Baggins, you immobilized your opponent and killed my heir. We'll be singing songs about you in no time at all.”

I laughed at the idea and before I knew it, I was in Fili's arms being cheered on for killing him. 

Now with the sun overhead in a bright glow of yellows and oranges, the company divided up once again to go back to the camp site and to rest where we trained. At some point, Thorin made his nephews get up and train with Dwalin, ashamed that their stances for such a rudimentary technique was still so horrible despite being taught it for nearly 70 years straight. I laughed at the idea of it and relaxed into the grass, feeling the sweat cool against my skin and my limbs go limp from the earlier training.

"So how did I do? Honestly?"

Thorin looked at me out of the corner of his eye, leaning back against the grass so that he could enjoy what was left of the morning before we would need to trudge along to the home of Gandalf's friend. 

"There's room for improvement." He teased lightly, a small turn of his lip that almost threatened to turn into a smile. I smirked at the image and adjusted so that I could lean closer. "You handled yourself well against multiple opponents too... Next time it'll be Dwalin and I." His voice chuckled at the thought of something and he closed his eyes to shield them from the brightening sky. "Though you won't be able to use such techniques to down the two of us."

I sat up and huffed, "Hey! I'll have you know that hobbit instincts are rarely ever wrong!"

"Ah, I see. So if you find yourself in battle against multiple opponents, completely outmatched? What would your hobbit instincts tell you to do then?"

His voice trailed along my legs and he rolled over so that he could look at me, his eyes every so often darting over to watch his nephews train with his best friend. I smiled at the thought of doting Uncle Thorin and fingered a piece of silvery dark hair that had fallen free from the tie. "Stab them and hide, of course."

Thorin grunted in response to the question but his eyes remained serious as he reached up and trailed a finger along my neck and down until he was obstructed by the buttons of my shirt. "Those instincts wouldn't be wrong in that case. Stab them and hide if you so choose." His eyes locked onto mine and he leaned forward to press a quick kiss to my lips, "But, do not hide so well that I cannot find you afterwards."

"Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of hiding?" I giggled at the touch of his hand along my neck and again when he grinned at my response, "True, it would defeat the purpose but if it keeps you always in my sight, it will be enough. I would have you close so that my blade could always protect you."

I smiled at the sincerity of his words along my spine and how they echoed along the skin of my wrists, carefully chosen words that declared his love for me in a way he could freely express. I leaned back against the grass and promised him that I wouldn't hide so well that he couldn't find me and delighted when he laid down beside me.

In the background, the brothers sparring continued all the while Dwalin ranted out corrections to their stances and how they were dishonoring their ancestors with each move.


	39. A Very, Very Hot, Insufferable Day...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the morning training, the Company heads off to Beorn's home...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is a bit shorter but only because it went originally too long and didn't follow my normal 3-stage set up. It would have been 4, which in my opinion drags on a bit long. If I split it up, it would've split strangely.
> 
> So! This travel portion will be here today and the entire rest of it tomorrow.
> 
> Also, I'd like to blame The Almighty Johnsons for this chapter's delay. That show is amazing and Dean O'Gorman is one fine Bragi.

By Yavanna, it was just so unreasonably hot. I should have expected something this bad given how the weather stifled and made me sweat even before the sun rose but by the _Valar_ , this was quite unbearable. Everyone else grumbled and moaned about the heat, breaking down at some point to strip off their leathers and haul them around either across their still gotten packs, or in their arms. 

Thorin's pointed glare was the only thing keeping the brothers' sweat damp tunics on but even then they whined and complained so loudly that all of us were sure that they must have forgotten at some point just what they were complaining about. Now just the sound of their voices made the rest of us sweat even more. At the point where I was mentally in all this, the very sensations against my body made me frown and whenever Thorin glanced back at me to see how I was faring, I could barely keep myself from groaning with _my_ overwhelming need to whine. 

It was miserable. I was hot. So unbearably bloody hot!

The brothers were also miserable and they were being insufferable in response to their discomfort. I was being insufferable. I could tell given the way I glared at everything that literally blocked the breeze and made whinging noises whenever Dwalin decided that he didn't want to provide me with any shade from his very tall stature. 

I was glad for the braid that Thorin put in my hair because it was probably the only thing keeping me from passing out. My vest and jacket never made it back on after our training and while I didn't miss any article expressly, Kili was glaring at his Uncle so intensely that Thorin couldn't help but look back every so often. The thing that Kili kept staring at? My ascot tie. At some point earlier in the day, Kili tried to win the tie from Thorin so that he could use it in his own hair but our leader turned out to be rather good at hand games and won the rights to keep the ribbon. By the time Fili went over to try and steal the ribbon from his hair, the heat was finally starting to have an effect on Thorin's already at times delicate manners.

Rest assured, he was valiant and he held out for as long as any other dwarf could have, hoping to keep his nephew in line by not provoking a response; Fili brushed against him, tugging at his arm like a child in the hopes that he would be able to distract him enough to basically tear the ribbon straight from his head. He couldn't use Kili in the plan either since the brunette dwarf would just take the precious fabric for himself. So in the end, Kili, Gandalf, and I amused ourselves by watching Fili practically drag Thorin along, whisper too closely in his ear, and wrap his arm around his waist just to be able to get physically closer.

However, Gandalf's chuckle reminded us that the heat had been trying on Thorin's nerves and now that Fili was literally pressing his furnace of a body close and impeding his Uncle from walking correctly... well, it was only a matter of time before...

The company laughed when Thorin finally had had enough. Even I couldn't help it when he finally snapped. With a rough shove, he pushed Fili away, growling something in Khuzdul and wiping the sweat from his brow as he went for his high collar and unbuttoned it. He looked exhausted and the heat was wearing on him like it did everyone else in the company.

He didn't pay much mind to where he pushed his heir because as soon as Fili landed on his back, he burst out into laughter.

Gandalf and I exchanged looks, wondering if the heat made him crazy..

“How was it? You were trying at it for a while!”

Upon hearing Kili's voice, Fili looked over at us and our curious stares, still slightly dazed from when Thorin pushed him. I helped him up just because he looked so pathetic and he smiled at me before nearly dragging me down along with him. It was far too hot for such games and I pinched his arm so that he knew that. 

“If we're being honest here, I kind of forgot why I even went over there.” Gandalf waited for us so that none of us lagged behind and when we were once more in the group, we went quiet and just let our body language complain about how miserable we all were. Gandalf himself didn't seem to mind the heat, looking delightfully cool and uncaring about the entire situation. Given how I felt at the time, I felt a stab of envy at the sight of him prim and proper in his robes and I sweating like a dirty hog in my layers. 

Honestly, if I were less of a proper Hobbit lass, I would say bugger all to wearing my bloomers and petticoat and just allow the breeze to do its work! All I did since it was at least more proper was unbutton another button on my shirt, sighing when the breeze kissed along sweaty skin. 

“Button that back up, Miss Hobbit.” I looked at Fili weakly, his voice a tremble on my bottom not from any emotion but because he was weary from the heat, “Just the thought of what's underneath makes me sweat.”

I rolled my eyes at the thought. 

“Brother, do your duty and end my misery.”

Kili's dramatic voice was weak on the other cheek and I groaned at the feel of it because it was so damned uncomfortable. On my other side, Fili looked at his younger brother and his eyes went down to where his knife was, “Uncle, Kili wants me to kill him. I think I need permission for that...”

A long suffering sigh could be heard even from the ten paces that Thorin walked in front of us, “If your brother has any courtesy, he'll ask when it is night and we won't be inconvenienced by dragging around his body in this heat.”

“I don't want you to kill me, you idiot!”

“Sticks and stones, brother.”

“You two are being so noisy.” I couldn't take their voices on me anymore and I sighed, wiping the sweat from my forehead, grateful for the fact that Fili's braid kept my bangs free from my eyes. Still, the braid didn't give them a free pass to act like idiots. As I walked along, I closed my eyes because the darkness made me feel slightly cooler...

“Why would you think I wanted you to kill me?”

“You did say that you wanted him to end your misery, Kili.” Gandalf gently guided me off to the side because my eyes were closed and I was about to trip over the root of a tree that edged too closely to the path we were walking.

“Oh.” The younger Durin responded, looking entirely too stupefied and completely unaware of what he must have even asked, “No, though, I meant; you must end my misery, brother. Spit on me,” All of us literally turned around to look at the youngest Durin, our faces all surprised by such a request. It was funny that we did not bat an eyelash over his request to kill him and yet his request to spit on him literally had us all shocked. His dark eyes looked at us pleading, “Ya know, spit must feel like water... right? I'd cool down if you spit on me.”

“I'm not spitting on you.” Fili looked away as if were grossed out by the idea if only because if he gave up his precious saliva, he might feel the heat all the more. My throat was already feeling parched so the thought of actually spitting anywhere was absolutely off the menu. When those dark eyes focused on me, I shook my head, “NO! Absolutely not!”

“Quite the kinky relationship you guys have.” 

I skipped in my step at the sound of Bofur's voice tickling my feet, a chuckle on my breath but his response to this entire conversation was completely out of my depth! Even as I dismissed the thought of it myself, Kili was dragging his feet heavily behind Fili, his body practically thrown over his brother and making him pull him along. 

Even as they started to whine again, I looked to Thorin and saw him pointedly ignoring how exhausting his nephews were being. As I saw his face force the voices of his nephews far from his mind, I felt I was very much in agreement with Thorin about what he was doing. I ignored them too.

I frowned as I watched them because as Kili dragged Fili down to the ground and they wrestled in the grass, I felt my lip curl in a sign of disgust because of how they were acting in the heat. Just looking at them made me nauseous with how rowdy they were being. 

I rolled my eyes, “Dwarves.” 

Now that I was no longer being bothered by the brothers or whatever else nonsense I was sometimes being pulled into, with Gandalf beside me, I could finally ask him what had been bugging me since we set off from the Carrock.

“So why is it called _'the Carrock'_ anyway? I've never heard of such a thing before.”

Gandalf's eyes glinted at me and as he walked along beside me, he carefully moved out of the way of any low hanging branch and set to work on getting his pipe ready for a smoke. I waited patiently but knew that if he didn't hurry up, I was going to smack him. This heat was unbearable and wherever we were going, if fire were there, I would scream. Literally scream or want to strangle something.

“He called it the Carrock, because that is his word for it.” Gandalf shrugged, his voice a constant weight on my shoulder as he spoke until his words lifted away, “He calls things like that carrocks, and this one is _the Carrock_ because it is the only one near his home.”

“Your mysterious stranger friend, yes? Whom you haven't given us the name of yet.”

The company was around us, walking along at their own pace and yet somehow, as I spoke with Gandalf, I noticed that they hovered closer and seemed to try and not walk too far ahead. I thought again of how awful of gossips the company of Thorin Oakenshield was, no better than the hobbit wives back in the Shire. If Gandalf and I were talking about trees or flowers, the company would be the first to know even if I wanted it to stay a secret.

“Yes, a very great person.” Gandalf himself noticed just as I had that we had an audience much larger than myself; at once, his eyes swooped around to the various members of the company, lingering on the brothers who were still going back and forth on whether Fili spitting on Kili was an actual means of relief or just disgusting. “You must _all_ be very polite when I introduce you.” He explained very simply, his eyes scrutinizing me for a moment before he grinned, “I shall introduce us all slowly, two by two, I think.” 

Once again, his eyes went to the brothers and also to Thorin, “Also, you must take care not to annoy him. He can rather appalling when he is angry...”

With such warnings, I found it even hard to believe that Gandalf thought we were better off going to his home! I mean, goblins were appalling when angry and the orcs were hardly any better! What made Gandalf think that going to this person's house was even a good idea?

“And this is the Somebody that you're taking us to? Right now?” The company gathered around Gandalf and I closer, feeling the charge of female wrath that was about to come because of the heat and because I just realized the danger we might be in just going to where we were supposed to be safe at. The funny thing was, as I thought of the company that Gandalf normally kept, it wasn't that I thought this mysterious stranger was possibly a great danger to us... more like, a great annoyance that we didn't want to deal with on top of everything else. 

I thought back to the last friend of Gandalf's we bumped into, Radagast the Brown, who was a fellow wizard and smelled like dung and had a voice that chirped in my ears like bird calls. By Yavanna, had Radagast been a strange creature. No matter where that wizard lived and no matter how distressed I was, I didn't want to go anywhere near that smelly wizard's house.

The heat made me petulant and more likely to whinge like the brothers. 

“Do you not have any friends who aren't complete nutters?”

“Mistress Baggins, the heat is making you rude!” He tutted, voice a sharp poke against my shoulder that nearly made me trip. “He is perfectly sane, just in the ownership of a temper, which as you personally know does not make him unlikable.” 

“Excuse me!” I knew what Gandalf implied with such a statement, knowing that it was a jest about how I was involved with Thorin and that he also was - as Gandalf so aptly said - in the ownership of a temper. Still, to air it about! In response to my slight chastisement, the grey Wizard just rolled his blue eyes at me and shook his head.

“If you must know more, his name is Beorn. He is very strong, and he is a skin-changer.”

“What?! You mean the wives weren't exaggerating?!” My hand went to my mouth and I gasped at the shock of what the Hobbit wives once said about this exact thing! Well, they hadn't used that exact term but the description was more than enough to match! Oh, how I wanted to go and run to the Hobbit wife circle and tell them that their stories were true! Actually true and not just them nagging! 

“A skin-changer? You mean like a furrier? They used to tell me stories of men like that who killed animals and then dressed up in their skins and then went out to mate it out in the wild!”

Even as I said it, I knew it sounded so crazy to even think and to solidify my thoughts, Gandalf nearly dropped his pipe and the dwarves listening around us burst out into laughter. 

“Good gracious, Bilbo Baggins, you need to stop listening to those awful women!” He sputtered, fixing his bag and adjusting his beard; even as he fidgeted, I could tell he was replaying the words in his head for he would shake his head at the foolishness of what I said. “My word, no! Beorn is nothing -No! Don't be such a fool if you can help it!”

Well... my face felt sufficiently red from Gandalf's reaction to what I said. Even after he stopped speaking to me, he still shook his head as if in disbelief and for once, I actually felt like a dwarf making crazy assumptions based off very little said. Certainly making up the very wrong of a situation was their forte but to so blindly trust in the hobbit wife circle... 

Why was Fili staring at me like that?

“What?”

“Wives?” He asked with a quick rise of his eyebrow, a healthy tone of curiosity that cupped along the flesh of my bottom.

Unbeknownst to many of the dwarves, throughout my journey with them, I had at times gone to the advice of the hobbit wife circle, replaying old conversations and nitpicking sayings based on their gossip. I thought of Azaelia Bolger and what the hobbit wives frequently said of her and how most of it could now be applied to me. Oh Yavanna, just the thought the line of Durin coming back to Bag End and me being the talk of the circle! 

Maybe I could be friends with Azaelia when I went back? Oh by the Valar, that was a nasty fate. Might as well just never go back...

Oh, Fili was still looking at me waiting for an answer. 

“Yes, we have a gathering of wives, who tend to gossip when they get together...”

Gloin, who had been hovering nearby throughout the conversation with Gandalf suddenly piped up, “Oh, you mean like a crafting circle? My wife does that with the other lasses.” He puffed up his chest in a display of pride, going for the locket that he kept around his neck. I knew what pictures were inside, if only because since saving Thorin's life, I had seen the locket no less than twenty times. “She makes the best pendants I've ever seen!”

“We know!” Bombur shouted from the front, loud enough to make my belly tickle. Upon his shout, Gloin seemed to bristle at the implication that he he'd been speaking of his wife and son Gimli too much and went up to the front of the train; immediately, we heard shouting about the sweetness of hair and beards and whose child was better at this and that.

The company promptly ignored them because listening to them made us sweat.

“So wait, what? A crafting circle?”

Kili practically hung off his brother again, nearly being dragged by a Fili who looked like he wanted to wrestle with his brother yet again but did not want to expend the energy doing so, “Aye, our women get together and sew or craft and they gossip like old crones.” Kili grinned at me, his voice a sure stroke along flesh, “Our Ma makes fun of them. Calls them wasteful, old naggers with nothing better to do than run around being old bitties.” He tiredly nodded in my direction, so sure that what I spoke of must be the thing that he thought of, “It sounds similar to your wives.”

“Oh, I suppose, though, they don't craft while they gossip.”

Fili's look of confusion at this was actually quite endearing, “Well, what do they do? Surely they should do something productive themselves in some way while they talk?” I was surprised by the casualness with which how he said such a statement because from what I knew of the dwarven culture, their females were equals and very much not idle for any reason. It just seemed so strange to hear something so demeaning, to suggest that their women couldn't get together without doing something productive as well. It seemed that my thoughts were correct because Thorin sighed from a few paces ahead of us again. My eyes glanced in his direction before Fili leaned in close, “Don't tell Ma I said that, of course.”

“Well,” I thought about the question for a moment even though I didn't really need to. I thought that perhaps maybe if I thought for a little bit that I would able to think of something that the wives did as we talked but... we didn't do anything. Ever. One might have been sewing a sock at one time but it was a one time thing...

“I suppose we just kind of stand by the market, looking at the food and the people that walk by.”

I knew Thorin's grunt of a chuckle anywhere and turned my eyes on his back, wanting to reach out and grab that ribbon from his hair just to subject him to the awful heat like everyone else had to, “Got anything to add, O' mighty Leader?”

In response to my challenge, Thorin glanced at me before resuming his walk, “Sounds like your lot don't have enough to keep their minds occupied.”

“We have plenty to keep ourselves occupied, thank you very much! We just, like to people observe.” I thought of how we tended to observe Azaelia and the other less popular Hobbit lasses, “Some people, I guess, deserve it, looking so forlorn at married couples...”

“Awww, do not tell me that hobbits are jealous when a woman embraces her sensuality?” Kili truly was being insufferable in the weather, choosing to almost brush against me like some animal, his sweaty dirty fingers gripping onto my shoulders before pulling me close in an awkward side hug. By the Valar, how did dwarves sweat so much?! Kili was practically soaked!

“We are not! We just don't prefer it to be toted all over the Shire!”

As much as I wanted to deny Kili's allegation against the hobbit wife circle, I knew I couldn't with the way that Fili looked at me and really knew how it must have been while in the middle of the affairs of women. It made me think that when he was a babe, he must have been carted off to at least one of them and knew the ways of how the women there spoke. It was that way at least with the hobbit wives, who sometimes brought along their children when they couldn't leave them with their husbands.

“Don't be jealous, Miss Hobbit, it's a very natural thing for a woman to express herself sexually.” The elder of the brothers practically oozed sex appeal as he grinned at me, his voice curling against flesh as he himself curled up along my side. If we hadn't been moving, I would have entertained the idea of maybe pressing up against him but aside from our movement, there was also the heat. 

The heat in question that was currently making him feel like a giant furnace of sweat ball fury, which was disgusting because he was literally dripping sweat and his breath was hot on my face. He laughed at the way my face twisted in disgust, knowing all too well why I wasn't turned on by his advances but that didn't stop him from trying to lean in for a kiss that I giggled into, jokingly attempting to get away from his hot lips. When his lips finally made contact with my cheek, I pushed him away with a laugh, “Get away, you''re way too sweaty for that.”

“Ah-HEM!” Gandalf coughed, interrupting the impromptu love fest that Fili and I had devolved into and once more bringing all attention back to him. “Bilbo, if you'll act your age. As I have been trying to say, Beorn is not such a man. He changes his skin; sometimes he is a giant black bear and, sometimes, he is a giant man with a great beard.”

I nodded at the statement, realizing that Gandalf was actually being quite serious when it came to his friend and how he was literally a skin-changer and not just a crazy man who dressed about in animal furs for his own demented pleasures. Unfortunately, despite the seriousness of our topic, Kili was still exhausted by the heat and he was grabbed onto Thorin's arm, dragging his Uncle back like a petulant child.

“By the Valar, this heat is unbearable and I'm starving! When will we be sent off to hunt, Uncle? Running might cool me down!”

“Which leads to another point,” Gandalf quickly interjected, “Beorn keeps cattle and horses and some other animals at his home that are truly marvelous.” At the sight of Kili's – and really the rest of the company's – eyes all looking at Gandalf like he were their savior once again, the elderly wizard groaned and rubbed at his head, taking in a deep breath of his pipe, “No, he does not eat them, you heated fools! They talk to one another and neither does he hunt or permit others to kill on his lands.”

“So how does the beast survive?” Dwalin gruffed out, amused by the company as a whole but very much still not in the mood for when Kili attached onto him, “Master Dwarf! You all will need to get the fuss out of your breeches before we meet him. He does not tolerate bad manners though he himself can have rather questionable ones himself. Just know that he does have good food!”

 

As much as all of us were desperate to get to Beorn's home hidden away in what Gandalf said was the “bosom of nature”, when we finally came upon the pastures of gigantic bees that were far bigger than hornets and the single scariest thing that I had ever seen in my life, we were all a bit reluctant. Looking around, I knew they thought the same thing I did. If the bees were so much bigger than an average one, how much bigger was Beorn?

Even though we wanted to linger, Gandalf pressed us onward, citing that we were on the edge of Beorn's personal bee-pastures and that we only had a little bit further to go. It was a while longer after we set off again when we finally came upon the edge of an arching pathway of oak trees that rose up tall and were sturdier and greener than any tree I'd ever seen before. 

Living in the Shire on the edge of forests, I was well acquainted with trees but just the sight of these was enough to make me reach out and stroke along its truck, amazed by the height and how thick its trunk was. Their long limbs covered in moss and foliage elegantly arched and draped over the glade that we walked in, creating a winding pathway that we followed. As we walked along underneath them, all of us noticed that through their thick branches, the intensity of the sun was lessened. They provided excellent shade and underneath their canopy, the air cooled considerably and we all finally breathed in relief at the prospect of being somewhere cooler.

Onward we traveled until the pathway suddenly veered off and disappeared behind a thorn hedge, so thick and tall that not a one of us could not see beyond. On closer inspection, even the horns on the hedges were enormous, bigger than my fingernails and when I tried to peer beyond it, Gandalf stopped me. “You all had better wait here. We must do this delicately or else we'll be thrown out right on the spot.” 

My eyes darted over to Gandalf for a thought passed my mind so swiftly, I could not really ignore it. I thought of the rather unexpected party that Gandalf heralded back at Bag End and how all of the dwarves came nearly one after another until I unexpectedly had little choice when all of them arrived. By then, I barely could contemplate how so many dwarves managed to con their way into my own without a proper invitation. Now, I knew.

I should have known.

Now, I felt awful considering that I would be a part of this nonsense. Essentially, I was now to do what Gandalf had done to me and if the dwarves were going to raid this poor man's pantry then... I couldn't even finish the thought, I was already so annoyed by what we were doing.

“Now, again, as I said before, you'll each come two by two since we are a rather large group.”

“What's the signal?” Kili quipped, his brother quickly following up on his inquiry. “A barn owl or a brown owl? Should we have more than two this time?”

“Fili, Kili, you'll stay behind. I'll go with Gandalf first.” Thorin huffed out, exasperated and just all around frustrated by the day that came after the training that happened in the morning. Upon his decision to go first with Gandalf, the rest of us backed up and I watched as Thorin untied the ascot from his hair and ruffled his hair free. I rolled my eyes at the display because, of course, he would never meet Beorn with his hair looking anything less than majestic.

As soon as the tie was out of his hair, Kili snatched it up, much to Fili's protests and the next thing I knew, he was pulling his own dark hair up. “Oh by Aulë, that feels amazing.”

I rolled my eyes, just thinking about how simple dwarves could be sometimes. Simple yes, but still selfish seeing as it was my ascot! 

“No, no, I think I'll be taking Miss Baggins with me.”

“The burglar?” Thorin's voice was a whisper along my back, making sure that I understood that it wasn't intended to be offensive but that he thought it was a ridiculous notion for me to go and greet Beorn with Gandalf when I was the company's burglar. I couldn't imagine why anyone would want a burglar in their house.

“Yes, Miss Baggins will be ideal for this.”

“He's not a funny one, is he?” Thorin asked, instantly suspicious. He was not entirely too willing to be at Beorn's in the first place and knowing that all of us might not be safe was something he would not abide. 

“Goodness gracious- !"

“Look, brother, I'm Kiki, the Hobbit lass!” Kili interrupted and all of us glanced at the pair just in time to see him bat his eyelashes at Fili, who was attempting not to laugh. The fact that he was also running his hands through his ponytail had nothing at all to do with the slight chuckle that escaped my lips. 

“ _Save_ me from all of you today! Do any of you know what the date is today?”

In a second, I knew that I didn't know the answer and looked around at the other dwarves for any possibility that they would know. I thought back in my head and really tried to think about the last time I really knew what day it was and thought about how I lost track sometime in the journey over to Rivendell. It was spring when we left and now it was summer, that was for sure. Other than that, I was a little lost. Maybe Afterlithe by Shire-Reckoning?

Or was it Wedmath? I did the basic math in my head very roughly, counting silently and feeling that I was pretty sure that we definitely were in Afterlithe but probably getting close to Wedmath.

“You are quite right there, Ori.” I startled out of my thoughts just in time to miss whatever Ori said, “Yesterday was the 19th lunar cycle of the Moon of the Gold Mountain. According to Shire-Reckoning, though, it's actually the 20th of Afterlithe. In two days, the moon will be full.”

Gandalf waited for everyone to understand just what point he was trying to make for us but none of us quite knew and I certainly had no idea. Just from what Gandalf said, the dwarves apparently used a lunar calender and that was something that I couldn't understand even in the slightest. So whatever it meant about the moon being full meant nothing to me considering that I lived my life based on a solar calender. 

We waited and waited and when no one said anything, Gandalf shook his head again. Suddenly just as Gandalf was going to explain, Ori exclaimed that he understood! All of us jumped back and I had the sensation of the damned kittens again as he smiled around at the group. “The moon will be full in two days! I read about it in books about creatures that worship the moon! Gandalf mentioned while on the Carrock that Mister Beorn sat and looked at the moon.”

Not a one of us understood and when Ori looked at me happily, I almost flinched. If Beorn worshiped the moon, in two days, we weren't going to have to haul ass out of here because he would try to sacrifice me, right? There really was a whole lot of that idea that just wasn't going to happen.

“What does that have to do with Mistress Baggins, Ori?” Thorin tried to keep his temper under control but the heat combined with the lack of food and the journey was starting to get to him. 

“Well – and I just read this in books, mind you – but if what I believe Master Gandalf is implying in that Mister Beorn is a moon worshipper, then Miss Bilbo will make him like us." Well, that certainly caught everyone's attention, I noted with amusement, watching as everyone turned to give Ori their full consideration. "We consider the moon male but they consider the moon female...” He trailed off nervously at the looks the various company members were giving him but while his voice shivered over my palms like scared little kittens, I had to note that he was at least confident in his information. “Well, with the full moon coming up and a female in our company, he'll take it as a good omen and want us to stay. Hopefully, anyway.”

“Brilliantly said, Master Ori!” Gandalf smiled his proud gleaming smile down on Ori, who nearly collapsed on himself in embarrassment at actually having been the most knowledgeable in our group about a matter that only the wizard himself knew. It was quite nice to see Ori perk up and equally as adorable watching him hide his red face in blushing pride. 

“So you think that he'll take to us if Miss Baggins is with you?”

Thorin once again was distrustful of the situation but from the way his voice lingered over my back, he definitely was now considering leaving me in Gandalf's capable hands to face our unknown – and unknowing – host despite the information that he was a fierce creature. He thought to himself very quickly, his eyes darting to a point unseen beyond the hedge and then to me and when finally he decided, he nodded his head and waited off by Dwalin.

“Very well. We'll wait for your signal and join you in pairs.”

Now with Thorin's blessing, I stepped away from the hedge and looked up at Gandalf, suddenly feeling like a trapped little animal the more I thought about how he was planning to offer me up to a furrier... Not a furrier, I tried to remind myself! 

Well, if Gandalf and I were going to greet our unaware host, he would at least need to see that we were decent guests. I took a minute for myself, buttoning my shirt as proper, putting on my vest again, and getting back into my jacket, already groaning from how heavy it all felt against my body in the heat. I made sure that I looked presentable enough and tried to fix my hair as best I could but when I noticed that everyone was starting to get impatient for a hobbit fussing, I rolled my eyes. 

“What? I won't greet a host looking like a sweaty cow.”

“Moooo!”

I gawked at Kili, who was smiling and looking pleased with himself while he enjoyed the luxuries of not having to look proper and also having my ascot in his hair. I shook my head at him and frowned, “Fili, spit on your brother. I swear, you dwarves today!”

Though I had no room at all to talk, I was as pleased as a babe when Fili instantly went for his brother and they started to wrestle and I smiled wide when I joined Gandalf beyond the hedge and heard the sound of Fili spitting and Kili practically screaming from how foul it felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gandalf needs a new name.
> 
> Gandalf, the Dwarf and Hobbit Wrangler


	40. Queer Lodgings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and Gandalf must make their case to Beorn to let them stay...

Even though Gandalf felt very confident about “adventuring” into the home of Beorn, I completely felt as if I were the tiniest of creatures just standing on the other side of the hedge. The thorny divider towered far over both our heads as we walked along, finally coming to the front of a massive gate that sectioned off the house from the rest of the wild forest.

If the sight of the hedge wasn't enough to convince me that the man we were going to see was someone of amazingly tall stature, I was definitely convinced given the size of the gate that we now stood in front of. The dwarves followed along after us but stayed back when Gandalf turned back to motion for them to stay put. Only him and I would be able to go beyond the gate for now.

So close to the gate, I was amazed by the craftsmanship that went into the wood; standing far beyond even the head of Gandalf, the broad gate was craved with images of two great bears in perfect symmetry, both standing on their hind legs and had their arms lifted to hold what looked to be the image of a moon. Around them, patterns and swirls were carved into the oak and treated with a type of varnish that made some of the patterns pop with warm, roasted colors.

It made me think of how my picket fence and rusty gate back at home was a simple thing compared to the heavily embellished work in front of me. It made me think of how audacious it was to even think that anything in the world was a gate compared to this...

Even as I couldn't help but be awed by the very sight of the craftsmanship, I also couldn't ignore just the sheer size of it! Both of the bears were as tall as Gandalf and the very sight of them made me step back.

I didn't want to meet Beorn. He was going to be too tall. We hobbits were never really fond of the Big Folk for more than the specified reasons of us considering them untrustworthy but, also simply enough, we felt them far too tall. As if it were just too excessive for us. If I felt a normal man was too tall than Beorn was going to make me fall over just from the sight of him!

“Good luck, Miss Bilbo!”

When Ori cheered me on, I knew that I had to be the bigger creature when it came down to it. I laughed at the very thought considering who were going to meet but if Ori were counting on me, then I had to go and attempt to be the best guest ever!

As it were, despite wanting to feel brave for the company, Gandalf still had to take my arm and tug me along when he finally opened the gate and went beyond. The forest surrounding Beorn's home and the gate was amazing but they were nothing compared to the actual compound where the man lived. There was a grouping of high walled wooden houses, all built up to look nice and sturdy and filled with the same motif that the gate sported. Depending on the building though, the bears were joined by the images of cattle, dogs, elegantly shaped horses, swirled puffy shapes of sheep, and simple lines for bees. 

The grass grew far more lush on this side of the hedge, the healthy soil cushioning my feet well as Gandalf and I walked along.

I saw stables for the horses that Gandalf spoke of, shacks for storage, more bee-pastures, and long rowed houses that connected with others. Dogs traveled through the doorways easily, wearing a type of leather vest so that they could carry things between the homes.

Though the hedge grew along the entire compound as a means of protection, from the inside of the grounds, one could barely see it at times due to an additional ring of oak trees that lined the perimeter. They towered over the houses, shacks, and stables, hanging over some of the structures in a protective embrace. Even with the sun shining down directly onto the compound, the air was cool and a breeze swiftly blew throughout. 

It was beautiful in a hardier sort of way than what I knew from Rivendell. The home of the elves was a gorgeous display of curved architecture and elven magic but this was a place built from the hands of someone who was gifted. The dwarves would love him instantly just on those grounds alone.

While most of the animals flew or moved around the compound caring very little for the arrival of two new strangers, Gandalf and I caught the eyes of a pair of horses, who previously had been busy but stopped to see what we were up to. They looked at us in a way that I had never known an animal to look at me before. I thought of Myrtle and how I thought she was going to kill me once upon a time... Looking at these horses, I actually knew that they had the intelligence to do so.

I turned around on the spot and started to leave, only to be stopped by Gandalf once again grabbing onto my arm and tugging me along with him.

“They are leaving, Bilbo; off to tell him of the arrival of strangers, no doubt.”

Just as Gandalf said, the horses had taken off at a gallop, rounding the main house and disappearing behind a corner section where a well was being drawn from by a group of dogs. It was such a freakish sight to see animals act in such a way; back in the Shire, all of our animals either just stood around brainless or rolled around in the mud and dirt all day long. These animals were in such possession of intelligence that they did chores and cleaned the floors of the nearby main house. It was amazing...but still freaky.

Following after the horses, Gandalf and I came upon a courtyard that split out into a pathway that led on one side to a vast garden of fruits and vegetables, baskets of perfect orange carrots sitting waiting to be carried inside while on the far side, one could see grape vines twisted up carved wooden spires. On the other side of the pathway, pollinated by gigantic bees was the largest garden of flowers I'd ever seen in my life.

I thought of Gaffer Gamgee who was in possession of the best garden in all the Shire but even he didn't have as many flowers planted in one garden as Beorn did. They were amazing too, some being pink, others being yellow, and others in combinations that were vivid and gorgeous. In the middle of a patch of red tiger lilies, one of the horses stood at the shoulder of who I assumed was Beorn, who from what I could see, was just as tall as I thought he would be.

Dressed in what looked to be a wool tunic that was belted and hung to his knees, he didn't seem to notice the hot weather as he rolled down the long blue sleeves of his robe and brushed the dirt off his dark brown breeches. As we neared, I realized that he was so tall that I could easily trot along underneath his legs and he wouldn't even notice me if he weren't looking down. The thought alone was overwhelming and I felt my stomach churn at the sight of such height. “Ah, and here they are! You can be off now.” 

I closed my eyes at the sound of his voice, unconsciously bringing my hand to rest on my chest where my heart felt like it thumped unsteadily in my chest. Such a voice was incredible not only because he spoke smoothly and clearly but because the way the sensation echoed on my body was like a thundering rumble that reverberated in my chest. It wasn't painful nor was it unfriendly in any way but it reminded me of thunderstorms and how the thunder felt when it cracked the sky, the way it shook your very body if you didn't prepare for it.

Since Beorn was in his garden and didn't want us to step into it lightly, he followed after the horse he dismissed and came to properly greet us, his bright blue eyes looking down at Gandalf and I, friendly in their openness but quite wild looking. Just as Gandalf said earlier, he was in possession of thick black hair that traveled in waves over his shoulders. Even though some of it was held back in a leather tie to help keep it from his eyes, it was messily hanging all over the place, insistently wild and out of control. 

His beard was equally as dark, peppered with bits of brown but it was not long as once said though it still retained its thickness. His face overall was actually quite different than what I expected; instead of being rugged, old and worn - an aged friend like Radagast- Beorn had a wild look to him that made him appear much like Kili. Happy in his wildness, a sense of youth in that joviality.

Catching me staring at his thick beard and the features of his face intensely, he scratched at the thickness of his jaw and looked to Gandalf for answers since I was lost in a daze.

“Who are you and what do you want?”

Once again, my hand went to my chest to almost try and soften the rumbling there, the way it stole my breath away. Beorn's eyes flicked over to me quickly but went back to Gandalf, waiting for him to answer his question. 

“I am Gandalf.” The Grey Wizard replied back politely, a slight bow of his head and a removal of his hat to show his respect.

“Never heard of him,” Beorn's voice was brisk, his eyes already watching me for my reaction and noting with a glint of his eye that I responded to his voice just as I suspected he knew I would. If what Gandalf said were true and he could change into a bear, did that somehow lend him a sense where he could feel that I was somehow different? “And who is this little hobbit?”

Even though he had very little need to do so, he stooped down low to be near my same level, his robe pooling around his ankles even as I realized that when he stooped, he did so in a way that was very much like an animal. Despite the fact that he possessed the physical movements of an animal, his eyes were entirely too scrutinizing, intent on looking at me as if he were planning to eat me or something!

I blushed and tried to introduce myself but my nerves were far too frayed for such a thing. At the sight of my flushed cheeks, he laughed loudly, the booming of his voice rumbling unpleasantly in my chest. Even with the booming sensation, I could not deny that he behaved in a playful manner, his cheek leaned heavily against his knuckles, “How I adore Hobbits and how easily they become flustered. Used to see them every so often when the caravans came to trade, squeaking like little bunnies and fussing about.”

As he spoke, his voice in my chest trembled and vibrated, changing so easily. My breath quickened from my heart beating so heavily in my chest and to try and quell the feeling, I clenched my fingers into the fabric of my skirt. At the same time, his words did not come as a shock to me, the fact that he knew of Hobbits even so far away from Bree and the Shire. Though it wasn't particularly common, there still were Hobbits that traveled in caravans with other traders and sold their wares.

“Still, it's been quite a while since I've seen a Skin Listener. How lucky I am to meet a Hobbit one too.”

“This is Miss Baggins, a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable reputation.” Gandalf introduced me in my defense and because I was left silently surprised by the fact that he knew of my condition, I reacted on Hobbit instincts alone; positioning my feet and curtsying politely, I did a dainty dip that had Beorn smiling even wider, “A proper family, you mean?” His eyes glanced over at the taller Gandalf, his voice a rumble that seemed to travel upward. His eyes came back to me, “That bow was quick; a sign of a proper Hobbit, I was told.” 

Finally satisfied with our introductions, he stood back to his full height, nearly causing me to have a bout of vertigo watching him. 

“So now I consider myself almost blessed with fortune since you have brought a female Hobbit Skin Listener to my home. Tell me, you speak your name as if I should know you.”

Gandalf smiled pleasantly at the large man, “Ah, forgive such an assumption. I am a wizard, and though you have not heard of me, I have heard a great many things about you.”

Beorn raised an eyebrow at that and crossed his arms, waiting and curious as eager listeners always are.

“My good cousin Radagast has told me tales, so certainly you know him since he lives near the southern borders of Mirkwood?”

Beorn smiled widely at the mention of Radagast's name and beamed at Gandalf as if the wizard were suddenly very exciting, “Yes, not a bad fellow as wizards go! I used to see him now and again and invite him by every so often.” Finally satisfied by Gandalf's explanation of who the both of us were and whether or not we were at least trustworthy enough not to attack him or his animals, Beorn continued on, “Well, now that I know who you are -or rather, who you say you are – what do you want from me?”

“To tell you the truth, we have lost our luggage and nearly lost our way. We are in need of help, or at the very least some advice. I dare say we have had a rather eventful encounter with goblins in the mountains and orcs.”

Beorn listened with interest to the long winded Gandalf, his fingers tapping on his forearms every so often; upon the mention of orcs and goblins, his eyebrows shot up in surprise and once again looked between the two of us. 

“Goblins _and_ orcs? Strange for them to hang about each other.”

“Well, we did not encounter them at the same time,” Gandalf seemed like he was ready to tell Beorn of the tale but he paused a moment and sighed in a dramatic fashion, “In fact, it is a rather long tale...”

I watched from the sidelines as he looked up at Beorn in a manner that spoke of his want to bequeath the tale to the much taller man; I was just so completely and utterly baffled that such an easy trick was actually going to get us inside Beorn's home. “Well, you had better come inside and tell me it, though I have work to do so don't let it take all day.”

As we followed Beorn back around to the main section of his home, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt over the fact that Gandalf would spin the tale of what happened to us so that it lasted as long as possible. In that time, dwarves would come in and introduce themselves and by the end of it, surely Beorn wouldn't know how he exactly acquired so many guests. It was such a dirty trick and I felt almost silly as a proper hobbit to be involved in it. 

The main section of the house that Beorn led us back to was as equally large as the rest of his compound and just as beautifully crafted; two large doors decorated with a similar bear motif as the gate stood tall and broad, and easily Beorn pushed the heavy oak doors aside as if they were nothing. Sunlight poured into the main room and inside, everything was made from oak, all treated with various varnishes so each piece looked unique and spectacular.

Bears were definitely Beorn's favorite thing to carve obviously, for on every chair back was the image of a prowling bear whose head was at least double the size of mine. Regular side tables were left simple but stood to the height of my head easily, its long legs nearly the length of my own body. Beorn stopped to put something away into a high hanging cupboard before heading along to the back section of the room, directing us through a hallway that opened out into what looked to be a dining room.

I nearly groaned loudly in frustration.

Inside the room was the one thing that I didn't want to see on such a day and just the thought of approaching the dug out fire place with flames burning strong made me almost shake my head. It cast the room in a warm orange glow until Beorn went over and pulled open a doorway that a moment later, some animals strolled through. I followed after Gandalf, noting that Beorn motioned for us to sit at one of the long tables that were present in the room. Just as the rest of his furniture, it was carved out of oak but instead of bears, the ends of the table were adorned with the heads of boars and how the legs connected to the main table seemed to be otters or weasels.

I hurriedly went to take a seat when Beorn grumbled out for us to seat ourselves, practically stumbling to the nearest seat available in my haste. Despite Gandalf being somewhat tall enough to get onto the bench seat, I still required some help with that and even when I finally settled, my legs dangled much to the delight of Beorn's ever watchful eyes.

From my spot on the bench, I saw the borders of another garden of flowers and I squinted in confusion because even though I knew a great many type of flowers, I didn't know what the ones in that garden were. At the moment, bees were tending to them, buzzing back and forth while horses hovered nearby.

“You were saying?”

Beorn prompted, giving me a quick once over before he went to his nearby cupboard and pulled out a plate and a jar. He set a few cookies on a rather massive plate and pushed it over to me, setting the jar back in his cupboard and reaching down for a jug and a cup. The next thing I knew, Gandalf and I had milk being poured into cups and handed to us; nervous as I didn't quite know what to do in the face of Beorn's hospitality, I was reluctant to take him up on his offer but upon his pointed stare, I thanked him and dug into the cookies.

Having not eaten for at least two days, the first bite of the cookies felt wonderful in my mouth and I groaned at the rich taste of them, gulping down milk and delighting in the way it felt against my parched throat. As I ate, I watched the two men talk, “I was coming over the mountains with a friend or two- “

Beorn tore his eyes away from my eating face, “Or two? I can only see one, and a little one at that.”

Gandalf grinned sheepishly, a perfect mask for what his ploy was. “Well, to tell you the truth, I did not like to bother you with a lot of us. If you're willing, I can give them a call?”

“Go on, call away!”

Seeing the rate that I was going through the cookies, Beorn stood again from his seat and went back to his cupboard where he took the jar again and this time simply loaded the plate with as many cookies as it could reasonably take. As he did so, Gandalf gave a quick whistle and just as Beorn was offering the plate back to me and pouring me another cup of milk, Thorin and Ori came round the house through the newly opened doorway. 

It took a moment for Thorin to take in the entirety of the situation but I wondered what it must have looked like to him? I suppose he imagined that Gandalf would literally have me lifted up to Beorn in a sacrificial offering sort of way. I'm certain by the look that was on his face that he was not expecting to see me with my hands full of cookies from a plate offered by our host. 

Equally so, given the fact that when we left the company was moments away from dying from heat exhaustion, it must have been particularly vexing to see both Gandalf and I kind of living the good life. I was impressed that he composed himself so quickly, bowing and followed in quick succession by Ori. As for Ori, I knew why they chose him to go with Thorin, being so polite and definitely looking the least threatening of all our bunch. The company chose rightly in sending along Ori with Thorin for if one needed manners, then who better to turn to than he?

“One or three, you meant! I was hoping for more hobbits but these are dwarves.”

Beorn smiled widely at the appearance of Thorin and Ori, setting down the jar and jug of milk so that I could have some more if I wished. His paw of a hand went into my hair, ruffling it playfully before he went back to his original seat and sat down in it. The entire time, Thorin watched him closely, a frown on his face that he forced into begrudging smile when Gandalf glared at him. 

“Thorin Oakenshield, at your service,” Thorin clipped out, his voice a touch of fingers along my arms. Oh, I nearly grinned at how annoyed he was at having to be so polite and courteous. “Ori, at your service!” Ori bounced along as he came straight up to the table where I sat and offered his hand so that I could help him up. Once he sat next to me, I passed him the plate of cookies and smiled at him as he dined.

Thorin stood his ground near the doorway, his blue eyes fiercely locked with the wild ones of Beorn. The tall man merely leaned against one of the arms of his chair and chuckled, “I'm in no need of the services of dwarves, though I know that you have need of mine.” His eyes trailed over Thorin's appearance, roughened from travel and battle, bruises on his face still evident and his clothing still littered with the splatters of blood that couldn't be washed out. 

“I am not overly fond of dwarves but if it is true that you are Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, and that your companion is as respectable and polite as he appears to be,” His voice was light though it still rumbled in my chest, amusement written clearly in his eyes as he looked over at where Ori and I nibbled on his cookies. He looked back at Thorin, “And, of course, if you are enemies of goblins and orcs and are not up to any mischief in my lands.” He paused as if he suddenly remembered something, his face coming round to direct any further questioning to Gandalf, “Just what _are_ you up to, by the way? Traveling with dwarves and hobbits is rather queer...”

“They are on their way to visit the land of their fathers, away east beyond Mirkwood,” Gandalf explained simply, “However, as it were, we were crossing the High Pass and ran into a bit of trouble. While we meant to go quite a bit more south than we did, we were attacked by goblins and orcs – As I was, of course, saying earlier.”

Beorn motioned for Gandalf to continue, completely ignoring Thorin as he came to my side and jumped up onto the bench himself and pulled himself up. I offered him some of my milk, which he accepted, though his eyes were still narrowed on Beorn fiercely.

I felt so sorry for Beorn as I realized that we were really going to do this, really going to try and just con our way into Beorn's graces. Gandalf told him the story that we had to relay to the wizard ourselves; he explained all about how we were stuck in the middle of a thunder battle and how we were forced to take shelter in a cave that turned out to be the “front porch” of the goblin town. Gandalf also mentioned how there was several companions besides the ones already introduced to the wild man. Obviously because Beorn could count and see who was already present, he picked up on the fact that Gandalf was either a bit screwy in the head or hiding away his other supposed companions.

So when Gandalf finally admitted to having more dwarves hidden away, Beorn responded with a grin and the command to call them for he was in the mood for a party. 

Once again, I nearly shuddered at the realization that this was all going according to plan. Beorn's choice of words made me shake my head because while he welcomed the so called party, I knew it from my own experience only as an unexpected party. Unbeknownst to Beorn, he would have a rather unexpected amount of dwarves in his home... It was a good thing he was looking forward to it.

When Dori and Nori came along to the door, Beorn happily laughed over the fact that they seemed to pop out of nowhere and he ushered them inside where they introduced themselves eagerly. Once again declining any service, they scurried off to Ori's side and Gandalf went on with his tale, explaining about the troop of goods that we lost, though once again Beorn picked up on the term used to describe our size.

So once again, Gandalf explained the difference between our present number and what was most likely waiting outside the doorway and no sooner as he started to explain it, Dwalin and Balin appeared. Beorn's attention was torn between the wizard explaining the story and the two new guests, shuffling in his seat and looking perplexed by the appearance of more dwarves.

“Troop was right...” He trailed off as he took in the appearance of both dwarves, who just as they bowed, Beorn stopped them with a raised hand. “Just come in. I don't want your service either, just your names then sit down and stop wagging about!”

There was a quality to his voice that I wasn't able to accurately interpret given the nature of the sensation that such a voice produced. I was sure with more time I would be able to figure out what emotion connected with where the rumble felt in my chest but for now, I had to go entirely off his facial features. He seemed unsure of what was happening even as Dwalin and Balin introduced and seated themselves accordingly. By the time his eyes went to Gandalf again, he was smiling. 

“Go on again.”

He was once again eager to hear more and Gandalf picked up where he left off, just as eager to continue. He spoke of how they came face to face with the Great Goblin and how even with a dozen or so dwarves at hand, they had a tough fight on their hands against such a foe. Beorn's eyes trailed along the group after he spoke, counting mentally the number of heads in his present company. The wild gleam in his eyes didn't diminish as he leaned back into his seat, already looking at the door and waiting for more arrivals. 

A second later, his eyes saw Fili and Kili arriving together and before they could introduce themselves, he held up his hand and ordered them to sit down and be quiet, not needing or wanting them to be introduced. He was catching onto the ploy, his eyes darting between Gandalf and the open doorway, already suspecting the appearance of more dwarves. 

So on Gandalf went with his tale, my eyes following the exchange as I nibbled on a cookie and nearly had to fight off Kili when he saw my cup of milk and went for it. At this point in the story, Gandalf told Beorn of how I fought my way back up from some hidden cavern deep below the mountain, earning a chuckle and a few claps from our host with a grin that made me look away because of the flush on my cheeks. Thorin tried his best but he couldn't help the glare he directed at Beorn.

Now from there, Gandalf paved the way to introduce the newest dwarves to make their appearance, this time telling Beorn their names as he nodded to them in greeting and motioned for them to take a seat wherever they wanted. Oin and Gloin scrambled into the nearest seats they could and once they were settled and not making anymore noise, Gandalf continued to the next part of the tale. 

He explained all about the orcs and especially the pale one known as Azog; as we watched and listened, I saw that hint of amusement and interest in Beorn's eyes grow into a flame of immense curiosity upon the mentioned name of Azog. He was genuinely interested now in whatever Gandalf said, leaning up to sit on the edge of his seat and listen with a renewed intensity.

He seemed especially interested in the part where we used pine cones as a means to defend ourselves while in the trees, hearing of how we each threw the pine cones at the wargs and orcs and how all fifteen of us almost fell to our death in the relative safety of one tree. At that point, Beorn jumped to his feet and commented to Gandalf that he was able to count and there were only twelve dwarves currently in front of him. Just as Gandalf was going to explain though, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur all came through the doorway and surprised all of us for Bombur was told specifically to come last since he was the fattest of all of us.

Now that all of our company now either sat or stood in his dining hall, Beorn looked around at each of us and seemed not to understand how so many dwarves were inside his home. He did not come off as a particularly social man given the company he kept but I knew what he was going through only because I had been in the very same position. I was only waiting for the dwarves to forget their manners and go off to raid whatever pantry Beorn had available. 

With all the company introduced and sitting in his hall, Beorn ushered Gandalf to finish his story with no more interruptions and eagerly listened to the rest of the tale that included the bravery of a little hobbit (where I once again blushed and tried to hide when Beorn turned those amusement filled eyes back on me) and the eventual rescuing by the eagles that took us over the mountains. By the time Gandalf finally finished his story, grateful to point out that they were now in Beorn's humble abode telling him the tale, the bright light of the sun had dimmed and the shadows were long with the oncoming sunset.

Beorn noticed this too and as soon as he took in the time of day from the length of the shadows alone, he stood from his great chair and clapped his hands together. “A very good tale!” He said, all smiles and happiness once again, “The best I have heard in quite a while, actually.” He easily moved around the dwarves, who were still standing around the table and leaned down to tell me directly over my head, “Horses are terrible story tellers, believe it or not.” 

Beorn offered me his hand and I glanced at the group momentarily for any offering of help but upon receiving none, I was forced to smile nervously and take up the proffered hand. I was nearly lifted off the seat, squeaking in fright and hearing Beorn laugh loudly at the sound that I made. “You beggars have told me a grand tale so I think you deserve a supper for it, even if it is all made up. Since it's also getting late, you can stay and not worry for needing to sleep anywhere out in the forest. There's plenty of beds in the adjoining house. I'll show you all to your accommodations.”

Despite being so happy to give us accommodations for the night due to the excitement caused from Gandalf's story, as Beorn ushered the company through an adjoining hallway which would lead us to the guest section of the giant house that he made, I was still forced to stick to his side and anytime I tried to wander off, he once again grabbed me to keep me close.

As he directed us to the main section of the guest room, every time I attempted to wander off, Beorn would reach around and check to make sure that I was still close as a mother would do with her child. I was forced to stick to his side, a frown on my face because I felt as if I were being babied. When I glared back at the company for any type of assistance, I caught on more than one occasion that while Thorin had one of the foulest looking expressions on his face, he was unable to really say anything. Fili and Kili almost couldn't help but laugh at the fact that I had to put up with such behavior.

The rest of the dwarves seemed to look on at me in mixed messages of sympathy and want to help out but if any of us did anything to ruin Beorn's rather giving mood, then we would all regret it. 

Most of all, I just wondered what was for dinner because if I had to deal with being treated like a child, then by Yavanna, the food better be delicious and the ale flowing freely.


	41. The Expected Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The company has dinner with Beorn while within the company, all isn't as it seems...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I totally know I said there would be sexy times in this chapter but apparently I lied. It was originally designed to have some smexy times but scenes ran long and since I haven't been to sleep yet, I'd rather write smut fresh from sleep rather than choppy and struggling.
> 
> SO!   
> To make up for it, I give more feels and a double post tomorrow.

When Beorn led us to the guest section of the main house, all of us were forced to follow quickly due to the large strides that our host was able to take. Gandalf followed closely, behind the main pack of dwarves like a watchful parent while Beorn directed us through a circular room with a fireplace in the middle that on the other side opened up to the main sleeping quarters for the guests. 

Or rather, singular quarter. I expected for all of us to sleep together with little more than straw beds, but it appeared that Beorn's craftsmanship and need for consistent decorating extended even to his guest room. Inside the large room with more than enough space to accommodate Beorn's large bulk walking between them, there were rows of bunk beds all following the motif that the rest of the house did. Some of them had carvings of bears while others had the rest of Beorn's animals that could be found in the compound. As Beorn led us through them so that the dwarves could set what little they possessed down, I saw that the bunk beds were cushioned with straw and furs and left the option to pull a curtain so one could have a bit of privacy.

Beyond the main room of bunk beds, there was a hallway that Beorn directed us down to and going all the way to the back, I saw that there were doors, two on the left and one on the right. These must have been guest bedrooms for the more important lot in a group or when people needed a lot more privacy than just what a simple curtain could provide.

Beorn motioned to the room on the right, “Master Oakenshield, you'll be on the right,” He then motioned to the room furthest back on the left, “Wee hobbit, you'll be there,” He turned back around and started back off down the tiny hallway, knocking on the last door on the left as he passed, “Master Wizard, you'll be in here. Come along to dinner when you're all settled.”

Excited by the prospect of actually having a room to myself while at Beorn's, I eagerly shoved aside the brothers and even Thorin to skip along to the end of the hallway, opening the doorway and peeking inside. Candles were already lit around the room, the brown furniture reflecting the glow almost like warmed chocolate. The room was a decent size given what was already expected of Beorn's entire compound with the bed itself the main decoration of the room, laden with straw and furs just like the bunk beds. 

I went into the room and removed my jacket because of the heat in the room and set it aside on the end of the bed; my fingers smoothed over the furs and while I could not instantly recognize what animal was used for the blankets, I felt as if I'd seen it before.

I felt horribly self conscious about the lack of buttons on my vest and removed that as well, setting it aside next to my jacket once I folded it up nice and proper. A tiny sound caught my attention -a light tapping, as it were- and I looked down only to see a hint of gold in the light that was available. I didn't know what is was until I bent down to see and when my fingers picked up the object, I felt foolish that I'd forgotten.

The magic ring from Gollum's cave. 

I turned it in my fingers, unable to take my eyes off of how beautiful it looked in the orange glow of the candles; as I turned it in my fingers, the ring appeared almost as if it were on fire, polished to perfection and smooth. It didn't have a scratch on it and it was still beautiful despite having been in Gollum's cave for an unknown period of time. 

I almost wanted to put it on again but with the others practically waiting to go to dinner – already cheering about it even, as I could hear – I knew that it wouldn't be a good idea. Still, I couldn't help but stare at it, noting how perfect and pretty it was.

So engrossed I was in staring at the ring that when the door flew open, I squeaked in fright and accidentally dropped it. Quicker than I could understand, the brothers were coming into the room and removing their various weapons, all the while happily chatting away. Kili was already by the bed, his weapons unloaded and his outer most layers quickly following. 

Fili smiled at me briefly, removing knife after knife and setting them down on the nearby chair. 

“What are you two doing in here?”

The room was not theirs as Beorn made sure to point out and just barging in was poor manners. The brothers just laughed at my question, Kili carelessly throwing his bracers onto the nearby dresser, “You didn't think the perks went one way, did you?” Kili replied with a pinch on my bottom before he reached over and grabbed me, pulling me into his arms and shoving us both back onto the bed. 

“W-what?!”

With a quick movement, the younger of the brothers hovered over me, his hair still tied up tightly in a ponytail. He looked content from his spot above me, a wide grin on his face. I couldn't deny either that with the way the candles reflected over his features, he looked gorgeous. Quite unexpectedly for him, I leaned up and threaded my fingers into his hair so that I could tug him down and kiss him.

“Perks like this?”

Despite the momentary shock of my kiss, Kili recovered quickly, leaning back out of my reach, “No, not like that. More like that if you can get special accommodations, we get them as well.” He grinned at something then, chuckling, “Oh, how spoiled you would be if we were back in Ered Luin. A bed is the least you can offer us in return. Isn't that right, brother?”

When Kili looked back in the direction of where his brother was, the smile he had on his face fell and he looked confused, “What have you got there?”

I sat up, wanting to see what was going on since I too was curious over the change in Kili's demeanor. As soon as I saw it though, my eyes widened and I nearly jumped off the bed to shove Fili down to the floor. The urge to strike out at the older brother was powerful upon seeing Fili holding onto the magical ring that I won from Gollum. He wasn't even doing anything more than looking at it in the light, twisting it around the same way I did moments before. Yet, I couldn't help but want to take it back from him.

Just as Kili was getting up to go to his brother's side and look at the ring more closely, I sat up and called out, “That's my ring. I dropped it when you two whirlwinds stormed your way into my room.”

Kili stood there by the foot of the bed, having stopped to listen to my explanation but his eyes remained on the gold band still being held by his brother. At the same time, Fili's eyes finally came away from the ring and after a moment's hesitation, he crossed the few steps it took to join me by the bed. 

“It's a beautiful ring.” 

He mentioned, his voice a strange tremble on my rear as his eyes still beheld the simplistic beauty of my prized ring. There was something in the corners of his eyes, a lingering emotion while the gold of the band reflected in those blue depths. I was just about to reach out for the ring myself when he seemed to realize what he was doing. He chuckled in disbelief and held out his hand in offering; I opened my hand and couldn't help but feel a weight lifted off my chest when Fili dropped the ring into my waiting palm.

“Though it's not nearly as beautiful as you are.”

He leaned forward to kiss me and I eagerly accepted such affection, groaning with how good it felt to finally have him kiss me again. Before we could really even think on taking the kiss a step further, Kili coughed, “As much as I'd hate to disrupt you two, I'm starving over here.”

I laughed as Fili helped me up from the bed, “Boo, you don't love me.”

I rather expected the younger brother to swoop in and make some kind of joke all the while groping at me but he just shrugged in response to my jest, “We all can't have everything; I'm starved and in desperate need to be fucked but only one of these things can happen in the foreseeable future,” Kili motioned to the doorway, “So shall we go?”

I nodded, still chuckling at his statement and how forward it was and went on ahead, sliding the ring back into my vest pocket without much thought as I went passed the foot of the bed. Fili followed me and gave his brother a playful shove as he side stepped around him, “Be careful, brother, or else I won't love you either.”

“Oh, you know I didn't mean anything by it.”

Even as I looked back at them and saw that they were happily grinning at each other, there was an edge to their voices that was strange. It tingled in a strange way along the skin of my bottom but the tone with which they jested was light enough to not keep me from standing at the doorway and calling back if they were coming or not.

Most of the dwarves were absent from the main room when the three of us came out but Thorin, Dwalin and Balin remained behind to wait for us. We joined up with them and all of us went together back to the dining hall where we could hear the other dwarves already happy in their ales by the sound of it. The room was bustling with activity when we entered, Beorn's various animals helping to do their part in setting out the meal that Beorn invited us to. Sheep were carrying trays of food on their backs while some lean, skinny dogs were helping to set the table with plates. Other dogs were taking the trays and arranging them onto the table. 

At the same time, horses were shifting around the furniture so that everyone could have a place to sit and eat; the entire room was so busy that I elected to stay clear out of the way until everything was moved where it was supposed to be and the animals were out of the way. As soon as Beorn saw me though, he called out to me in that rumbling voice and motioned for me to join him.

The other dwarves moved around the hustle and bustle of the animals, sitting on the seats arranged for them while I was lifted onto the seat nearest Beorn by the skin-changer himself. He sat in his giant straight backed chair while I was on his left and Thorin on his right. Gandalf sat opposite Beorn at the head of the other side of the table while the brothers sat next to Thorin and Dwalin hovered next to me. Beorn was generous with his ale, already reaching out to pour me some into a wooden drinking bowl that had a bear for a grip.

As he did this, already cheery and loud with the eagerness for a party, I couldn't help but stare at the dogs that still helped put the various selection of foods on the table. I sipped my ale and realized that the sight of dogs on their hind legs, carrying anything around in their fore legs was just the freakiest thing I'd ever seen. Given how they were taller than me when they stood like that as well, I felt I was justified in my belief that they were unusual.

The food that was set before us was a strange meal for the dwarves but right at home with what I expected of Beorn from Gandalf's tales. The funny thing as well, I was acquainted with a lot of what was on the table because of the more unusual hobbits, who didn't enjoy the taste or texture of meat. Everything on the table was originally a selection from Beorn's garden but it wasn't raw or simply made like the elves first served to us back in Rivendell. The vegetables were made into delicacies that had rich looking colors and textures. 

On the outer most ring were plates and bowls with a various assortment of salads and soups. Beorn took the largest of the bowls in front of him for himself and reached out for a smaller one, offering it for me to take. My mouth watered I was so hungry and I accepted it without thought, setting it down and looking around for a fork or spoon. Though Thorin was frowning, he eagerly dove into his food and ale while the company around us seemed ill at ease with the thought of there being no meat. 

I watched as Beorn reached back behind him and threw a bundle of utensils for the company to use while he specifically offered Thorin and I a set that was elegantly made. Now finally able to dig into the beginnings of my meal, I delighted in the look of the yellow and orange soup and spooned it before tasting. I groaned because of how unexpectedly delicious it tasted with its unexpected blend of ingredients. I hadn't a clue what it was when I first let it wash over my tongue but the taste of fresh cantaloupe and orange juice was so sharp, chilled and light. In my delight for the dish, I leaned up from my spot to see if Thorin or the brothers had a similar dish near them. 

When I couldn't find one that looked similar, I excused myself politely and offered the bowl to Thorin, “You need to try this. It's delicious!”

Beorn laughed at the compliment and watched as Thorin reached over for the bowl, giving a long glare to Beorn as he slowly dipped his spoon into the soup to try it. He did not comment on its taste but from the way his eyes glanced at me, I knew that he enjoyed it. Without a thought, he offered up his soup to me across the table and I took it with ease, tasting it as a thick tomato based soup. “Oh wow, this is even better than the cantaloupe one!”

Thorin quickly smirked up at Beorn before he casually went back to eating the soup that I gave to him. As I wanted a more solid dish next, I looked at the outer ring of food and selected a salad that practically dazzled my mouth. I could taste bits of celery, barley, with a hint of mint. In the salad was also thin apple slices and I eagerly bit into one and groaned at the perfect taste of it. The dwarves didn't seem to appreciate what they were eating like I did and I wanted to try a bit of everything though I knew it would be rude. 

Next to me, Dwalin picked at his salad and I eyed it hungrily since it was different than my own. Once he caught the sight of my eyes watching, he sighed at the very look that I was giving him and offered up the plate for me to try a bite of it. “Oh, that's amazing!” 

He didn't bother holding onto the dish after that, just giving it up and going for something else that seemed to look edible. Why Dwalin seemed to complain about his salad, I would never know. The fresh taste of apples, spinach, and walnuts was delicious and with the hint of honey and lemon, it was something that I would need to write down so that I could remember it for my own recipes back home. 

Once the outer ring of food was eaten and the bowls were set aside for the animals to take from us at their leisure, the inner most ring was exposed to us and already there were plates and bowls missing from it. I reached out for something that looked to be three stuffed rolls of bread and a bowl next to it. The bread was actually stuffed full and baked with a mixture of beans, cheese, and a tomato based mixture while the bowl was filled with a type of chili that had a brown tinge to it rather than a red one. 

“What's in this?”

I asked Beorn, who drank from his large tankard before looking down into my bowl. “That's my chili; made with tomatoes, onions, chickpeas, peppers, and chocolate.”

I raised my eyebrow at the addition of the strange ingredient because I had never heard of someone putting chocolate into such a dish but I was a hobbit and Beorn looked on eagerly as I readied to try it. 

_Oh, by Yavanna..._

Beorn burst out into laughter at the look on my face but it was simply the best chili I ever ate in my entire life! I had eaten so many of them in the past and all made so very differently but this one. Oh, by the Valar, this one! I eagerly cleaned the bowl and ate the baked bread, reaching into the pile of food for pieces of bread spread with honey. 

Throughout dinner, my drinking bowl remained full and I drunk freely without even realizing that much like the rest of the company, I was getting fairly drunk.

Sometime during the main course and my fourth (?) bowl of ale, the company took to telling stories since they needed something to do in between forced bites of food. Beorn and I ate eagerly but he didn't seem to pay much attention to the stories that the dwarves told since they all involved gems and riches that he didn't seem to take much interest in. Instead, the two of us ended up more than once exchanging bowls of food and talking about recipes and which ones we thought were best for the season. 

He had a great love of honey, which was why he was in the possession of so many bee hives and I told him of my great love of mushrooms, to which he responded that the last hobbits that came through gave him a great many recipes for how to cook mushrooms. Once the stories went away from the topic of food, he told me all about random events of the various times he held feasts for his fellow skin-changers that could sometimes be found wandering around the wood.

“Wait, do your lot still not like the elves?”

By now most of our group was thoroughly drunk and while I had slowed down, I was still a little faded around the edges and very much too quick to giggle. At the mention of the rivalry between the dwarves and elves, I giggled at the obviousness of the question and took another deep swig of my ale. At the same time, the dwarves grumbled and hollered about their distaste of the beautiful creatures, sloshing their drinks about roughly while Dori fell off his seat in a fit of laughter.

“You'll love this one then; so there was this one time that we held a summer feast. Brings all of the clan together for a few days.”

“Youurre acthully part ufa clan?”

Kili, who was pretty drunk questioned out in a slur of words, his voice doing the strangest things against my flesh that nevertheless got me to giggle. Beorn just slammed down his tankard in response to the question, “Of course I am! We bears are proud and very clan-like! We just don't like to be around each other all the time. Once a year!”

“What do you do once a year?”

From down the table, Gandalf shook his head, already looking to know where the story was going, while the rest of us listened on eagerly, “Well, we normally get together about this time to ma-” Beorn stopped, his hair wild and his eyes widening before he looked at me and a red color spread across his cheeks. All of us hung on the edge of his story, leaning close and wondering just what he was going to say.

Beorn hid his face behind his paw of a hand and made the most unusual noise, a loud _'Urrrhhh!'_ sound that made me squeak from the strange rumble of sensation. Given the laughter around me, it must have been delightful for the rest of the company but in an attempt to save his dignity, Beorn gulped down his drink quickly. 

“ _Talk_. We just talk. But the best of our women only talk with the most daring of us so every year they make up a new challenge. This must have happened many, many years ago now and it was the first to actually involve our neighbors in Mirkwood.” 

Every so often, he crammed bites of food into his mouth, spearing bread with globs of honey, “So, me and like, five others went up to the elf kingdom that's there and each of us shat into a sack,” I spat out my drink in the unfortunate direction of Dwalin, “I know! Great stuff that was! So we went and set it down by the entrance while one of us roared loud enough to get their attention.”

“What happened?” 

Fili stared wide eyed up at Beorn as if the skin-changer was his newest hero and even Thorin, who was less than polite to our host looked as if he wanted to offer the man a drink. “The obvious happened, lad! They thought a great monster had come to their lands and, we didn't think we'd get so lucky, but the Elven King himself came out to investigate.”

Beorn edged closer to the table now, “So the Elven King, having no idea what was in the sack bent down to pick up whatever it was. Probably thought it was one a youngin' of ours or something, I dunno. But he bent down to pick it up and...” He trailed off, waiting for us to ask him what happened next. I sat there with the most horrified expression on my face because he was literally ruining my perfect image of elves!

“And?” Thorin asked, intrigued enough to actually play along with the story. 

“You all ever see an Elven King hurl his supper all over the front porch to his own kingdom?”

Everyone was silent in the room for a long moment until Kili hiccuped and slammed his bowl down, “I fuuckin' louve you, man. Youurreeee a hero!”

Despite how horrified I was by the actual story itself, the way that Kili delivered his final seal on the story broke everyone from their silence, the room erupting in a laughter that was near deafening to my ears. The entirety of their voices shook over me and I had to cover my ears to try and alleviate the mess of sensations that relentlessly pounded against my skin until their laughter started to die away.

“Needless to say, we got to so much talking when we get back.”

Given the nature of the story, I was made aware of what Beorn exactly meant by 'talking' and I shook my head at the notion that they decided to show their worthiness by how well they could make the Elven King throw up. Loosened up with drink, the dwarves were eager to share many of their own tales after that. Beorn seemed most interested in the ones that centered on daring adventures of manly stupidity involving women. 

Throughout the ranging array of stories that even had Ori at one point telling everyone of how he tried to woo some dwarf lad, the ale still poured freely for some of the dwarves but at some point, Fili took away Kili's bowl and the younger brother with nothing better to do took to snoozing on the table. Thorin was quietly watching the company while I continued to stuff myself full of foods, much to the amusement of Dwalin and Beorn.

The night was growing more and more quiet, laughter a bit more subdued as the hours passed. The animals once again came to clean away the plates off the table, leaving behind only the ones that still had food on them, and then threw on fresh logs in the nearby fire pit. Fresh flames brightened the room, dancing shadows of the company across the walls of dining hall.

I watched the shadows of Thorin and the other dwarves as they flickered along the back walls of the room, appearing so tall that they almost seemed to be the same size as Beorn's.

After eating so much and drinking more than my usual fill, my head felt heavy and without even realizing it, I began to doze off with my cheek resting against my palm. I heard the light shuffling of things being moved about and opened my eyes to see Dwalin moving plates and my drinking bowl out of my way in case I jolted awake at any point.

With my eyes closed, I heard the sound of the hall and the voices of the dwarves more clearly, fading sensations against my arms, stomach, and cheeks that tickled and poked. In the background of that though, there was something else that was lurking; so faint that I wouldn't have noticed had my eyes been open, it was a wispy sensation of _something_ against the skin of my fingers. So faint a whisper of a voice in the air. 

I jolted awake at the sound of Beorn suddenly scrapping his chair back away from the table and leaving us, the resounding slam of the door marking his leave from the dining hall. We all waited for him to reappear but when Gandalf explained that we would not be seeing Beorn again for the rest of the night, the dwarves went back to their drinking. 

“I beg you all to remember even in your drunken stupors that we were told not to venture outside this house under any circumstance.” With his words of warning, Gandalf excused himself and walked in the direction of the guest hall where the bunk beds and bedrooms were. The rest of the dwarves seemed to take that as a sign to either continue the party or head off to bed themselves. Bofur, Bifur, Bombur, Oin and Gloin decided to stay up and continue eating and drinking to their leisure while Dwalin nodded to Thorin that he would stay as well. 

Balin was already heading back, though he stopped when Fili got up from the table so that he could whisper something into his ear. With a quick glance at Kili, who was quietly getting up himself to go to bed, the elder of the brothers went off with Balin to talk about something. Kili didn't bother to hang back and wait, stumbling and grumbling about the still spinning room.

After a glance towards me to silently ask if I was heading to bed as well, Thorin slipped away from the table and yawned quietly before following after his youngest nephew.

Balin and Fili were still talking quietly away from the main group and every so often, I could see Fili nodding or shaking his head about whatever was being said before throwing his hands up. I decided not to wait up to say goodnight to him because it had been a long night and because Fili had his own business at times to worry over. I said my own good nights to everyone else and shuffled my way back to the main guest hall where as soon as I opened my door to my room, Kili was on me. 

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Huh?”

His eyes still were far from clear and he swayed a little on his feet but at least he wasn't slurring anymore. “Can you do me a favor?”

He repeated and I, always eager to help out whichever way that I could, nodded. 

“Do you think that I can borrow the room for the night? You can bunk up with Uncle.”

I thought about the request for only half a second and I saw a myriad of emotions pass through Kili's eyes when I failed to respond fast enough. He looked hurt and momentarily overwhelmed and figuring that he was emotional because of the drink, I instantly went to soothe him. My hands rubbed along his arms as I smiled up at him.

“Of course! Just let me get my stuff and I'll get out of your way!” 

From the delay in my reply, Kili probably wasn't expecting the answer I gave him from the reaction on his face but I didn't mean to make him so anxious. Never would I think of coming between he and his brother and their need to find some alone time with one another. It was only because I was so tired that I failed to process the words that he spoke to me as easily as I would have any other time.

I gave his arms a quick squeeze before I scurried off to retrieve my vest and jacket, bundling them up tightly before once more going to his side. The look on his face was a little morose and I felt a pang of sympathy for whatever he was going through; it wasn't a common thing in the Shire to come across sad drunks and it was a little interesting to know that Kili was considered among their ranks. 

I wanted to cheer him up so I did the only thing I could think of. I leaned up and tried to kiss him but at the last minute, he seemed to snap out of whatever mood he was in and turned his face to the side so that my lips pressed gently to his cheek instead. My eyes blinked in surprise, a tiny pang of rejection spreading so quickly through me that I couldn't help the hurt that shone in my eyes. 

He smiled at me and hid his mouth behind his hand, “My breath is really bad right now.”

I frowned at the obviousness of his excuse but actually figured it to be the truth when I really thought about it. My own breath must not have been very grand either considering that I drank almost as heavily as Kili did, so I just smiled and nodded, squeezing his arm again before I left the room.

Almost as soon as I left the room though, I was bumping into Fili. His eyes were sharp as he looked down at what I carried in my arms, slowly coming back up to direct that questioning gaze on me. “What's this?”

There was a playful note in his voice, a slight tease to the sensation as it groped me; he seemed intoxicated by my presence, stepping closer until we were backed up against the door frame and his body was flush with mine. I smiled at him as he nuzzled along my neck, kissing and nipping at the skin there as I tried to keep from giggling. “Kili wanted some alone time with you.”

I made sure to whisper it so that any other ears couldn't overhear but when Fili tensed, I thought I still shouldn't have said it out loud. He stopped his easy affections, leaning back so that he could look at me and glance back at his brother, who was still in the room behind us.

“Is that so?”

There was something lurking in those blue eyes, a dark tinge of emotion that prickled along the skin of my bottom in a way that was familiar and yet so far removed from immediate memory. Even with such an emotion in his eyes, the rest of his face looked to be carefully schooled into a happy grin and only when I shifted his face to look back at me did he seem to loosen back up. 

“I'm already jealous just thinking about it.”

Fili laughed at the suggestion, “I'm not. He's been drinking and he performs badly when even the slightest bit tipsy.”

His voice pinched pleasantly at me and he kissed me deeply before he let me loose. I said my well wishes and good night's to him and his brother, hoping that the hint of exhaustion was gone from my voice. I slipped around him and pointed to Thorin's door to inform him of where I would be should he need me, watching as he nodded and saw me slip inside Thorin's room nearby.

From behind the sturdy wood of Thorin's door, I heard Fili sigh followed a moment later by a loud slam of the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see with my chapter, I didn't agree with Tolkien in Beorn's main source of food. I'm all up for fantasy but how bread, honey, and cream can healthily sustain a man, who can change into a bear, is just a giant pile of rubbish.
> 
> I've rounded out Beorn's diet to include healthy vegetarian meals.


	42. Sleepy Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thorin and Bilbo enjoy their first night alone...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I have to say that due to unforeseen circumstances with friends coming only and my Mom constantly calling me throughout the day, I wasn't able to write up the next chapter.
> 
> Also, this is the second incarnation of this chapter. The first one involved the sex scene being rough and steamy (the way most people tend to like it) but then I figured that I already had done that before in the fic and instead wrote what I did below. I ended up loving it a lot more just because it's an accurate depiction of real life sex and it was quite refreshing writing it.   
> Simple reminders that not all sex is HOT HEAVY, ORGASMIC INDUCING! but also sometimes just really fun and intimate. 
> 
> Secondly, writerchick, once again you get a thanks because you instilled in me a powerful beard kink and you requested a chin bite that never made it in the original planned chapter "Down by the Ford".

There was something finalizing about the click of Thorin's door that kept me from over thinking what the slamming of the door after Fili went into the room meant. Now that I was in the room I was supposed to stay in for the night, I figured that if it was important, one of the brothers would mention it in the morning or I could ask them myself when I next saw them. 

For now, I was desperate to just set my things down and head off to bed. 

“What do we have here?”

I smiled at the teasing sensation of that voice lingering over the back of my neck and I amended my previous thought to also include the explanation of _why_ Thorin would not be having his bed to himself tonight. It almost didn't even surprise me that Kili would have offered Thorin's room without even asking him for permission, another time that it would be brushed it off as just one of Kili's impulsive little quirks that I was increasingly becoming aware of.

I turned around and grinned at the sight of Thorin already half undressed, his brigandine in the process of being removed from his body before I suddenly barged in.

“Kili asked me to bunk here so that he and Fili could have some alone time.”

I wiggled my eyebrows at the implication of the request and earned a slight chuckle in response to my unexpected bout of humor while it being so late at night and I being so tired. “Very generous of you.”

He went back to undressing, pulling the armor from his body before he let it fall onto the bed in a pile. I was a bit surprised by the look of his room since it varied so much from mine, the various furniture being made a bit lower to the ground than the ones in my room. My bed's height was what one would consider for the average height for a normal man but while Thorin's bed was similar in size, his was barely up to his waist in terms of height. Looking around, I saw that most of the furniture was like that, all pieces made to suit the size of someone smaller. 

The carvings in the wood were not Beorn's usual motif either that normally consisted of the animals found at his home but rather, rather large rabbits. I was reminded of Radagast and how he rode around on a sleigh pulled by what he called Rhosgobel rabbits. I looked around and had the most peculiar thought... was this the room that normally Radagast used when he came to visit? If so, the height differences made sense.

“Is something wrong with the room?”

Thorin's baritone of a voice brought me back from my musings and my eyes snapped to what he was doing, sitting on the low edge of the bed while he methodically unlaced his boots. I found a nearby chair to hang my vest and jacket, checking to make sure that the ring was still inside the pocket, before I went over to Thorin. “Nope, just noticing that it's very height appropriate.”

“It is more convenient compared to what we had before.”

I remembered the beds in Rivendell and how comfortable they were but also how one had to climb into them after having to also jump up. I also remembered the other activities I did while in those very same beds and the thought made my lips turn up at the corners and step closer. Just as Thorin finished pulling off his other boot, he seemed to notice my close proximity, his gaze relaxing as he took in the sight of my face and the sneaky expression there.

“I don't really remember the beds that well.” I commented as I stepped in between his parted legs and reached down to untuck Thorin's navy blue tunic from his breeches, pulling the fabric free and feeling my heart race when I heard his breath hitch. My eyes moved over the lines of his face, noting the cuts and bruises still prominent and wishing I could gently kiss them all away.

As I stared at his face, I felt an urge to do something since the ford and not to be denied this time from any sort of interruption, I leaned forward and nipped at Thorin's chin, teeth grazing along the coarse hair of his beard.

“Oh?” His voice was deeper, already driven lower with arousal. Leaned back like it was, his entire face was open to me, no longer hidden behind the mask of cold authority that he wore whenever in front of his company. Now, his eyebrows were playfully expressive, lifting in a way that made him seem younger. Those same eyes that watched me drifted down to where he felt me pulling at the ties of his tunic, slow and so very far from what anyone would consider hurried.

“What do you remember then?”

His voice was a delight over my skin, fingers pressing and molding along the curves of my body before disappearing. More and more the skin at his nape was revealed before I continued pulling free the laces and saw the thick forest of hair on his chest made visible.

“Pleasure, excitement...the wish for your skin...”

His eyes darkened at my words and I licked my lips at the sight, knowing that it was my own voice causing his body to go through such changes. I watched his hands come off the bed and edge along the fabric of my skirt, a barely concealed real physical sensation that I shivered at. “You look as if you're going to fall over at any moment.”

Even as his voice lingered over my collarbone, I giggled at the notion because it was probably true; the day all of us went through had been a very long one what with having trained earlier in the morning, walked all the way to Beorn's in the most awful of heat, and then partied with the giant of a man until late in the night. It was no wonder that any of us could even still stand much less one like myself who was so unused to traveling. 

Now that Thorin mentioned it though, my eyes burned with their insistence for me to rest and the soles of my toughened feet begged for me to get off of them. I really was so very tired but I wanted Thorin just as much as I wanted to sleep and I could tell from the dark circles under his eyes that he felt the same way. Both of us were so exhausted but too long were we waiting for some moment like this where we could consummate the newest level to our relationship.

I smirked at him, allowing the tiredness in my eyes to seep through, “If you were too tired, I'd understand,” I stopped so close to the last holes of his laces, his shirt almost completely off, “We can hold off?”

“I've been _holding off_ for too long already.”

Thorin's voice was a roughened trail of fingers along the inside of my thigh, possessive even as he pushed my suspenders from my shoulders and went for the button of my skirt, letting the yellow fabric fall around my feet forgotten. He didn't waste a moment, going straight for my shirt and undoing the buttons easily until the fabric was left for me to shrug off.

Both us were unwashed from the morning training session and from the long walk of the day and as I shrugged off my shirt, I could smell the sharp scent of my body. Thorin chuckled at the look on my face, his large hands gripping me around my waist to pull me closer so that he could nuzzle along the fabric of my chemise shift and take in a whiff of the powerful odor.

“I smell awful. Let me wash up before we do this.”

“I'm afraid I cannot allow that,” He sighed dreamily, his eyes closing as he allowed his hands to wander, trailing behind me to cup at my bottom and work a groan from me when he kneaded the skin there. His voice traveled opposite his real hands, curving low over my belly and threatening to sink lower, “If I'm left idle, I might fall asleep. Likewise for you since you ate so much.”

My eyes snapped open at the statement and I made to push away from him but Thorin's hands only gripped me tighter. “I did not eat that much, jerk!”

Oh, it was a lie if I ever told one and Thorin knew it just by looking at me; even if he hadn't been watching me throughout dinner where I did indeed stuff myself near bursting, he definitely gave me his proof when his fingers trailed over the rounded softness of my belly. I squeaked away from his fingers, feeling the embarrassment wash over me, but he disregarded the emotion entirely and instead, leaned forward so that he could nuzzle his cheek along the softness there.

“In the villages of man, a belly like this would be a sign of richness and health.” I felt the heat along my cheeks and threaded my fingers into that thick mane of his, delighting when it pulled a soft sigh from him. “And in the cities of dwarves?”

Thorin pulled back at my question and looked at me, his eyes searching my face before he glanced back down at my stomach and pressed his hand to it again. Once again the embarrassment from eating too much threatened my will power to stay put but I waited until Thorin's soft grunt of a chuckle could be heard. 

“A sign that you're early with babe.” Thorin's voice was soft with affection but his eyes had a faraway look to them that made me think that he thought of how his sister was once heavy carrying the burden of his nephews, who were currently in the room engaging in their own play. His voice was a sensation along my back, trailing down wistfully, “I must admit though that the idea of you being a Mother does make my heart race.”

“Careful now,” I playfully reprimanded, “You're about one sentence off from needing to propose to me.” I laughed at the jest but I did not tell him the truth behind my words. In Hobbit culture, we were very serious about family and definitely when a man made such statements like what Thorin said, our Fathers would be expected to take the gentleman aside and discuss dowries and such. It might have been acceptable for Thorin in his culture to make such statements idly but in my own, marriage was literally expected if he were to continue.

Thorin reacted to my words by looking up at me seriously, his eyes assessing the emotions that played along in my blue eyes before he reached up and pulled loose the gold bead that kept my main braid from unravelling. “And if we returned to that labyrinth of a hobbit village? Would the notion of marriage between all of us be so accepted there?”

Our gazes were locked onto each other's as he played in my hair, pulling out Fili's bead and letting it fall loudly to the floor where his joined a second later. “Definitely not. I'd be deemed very odd,” My voice hitched as I felt the play of his other hand slide underneath my petticoat and go for the strings of my bloomers, “and all of us would be disturbers of the peace, no doubt.”

“Disturbers of the peace?” His voice rumbled low in his throat at the prospect of being such a dwarf in a village of hobbits, tendrils of sensation along my thighs as his other hand joined its twin, slowly pushing my bloomers down off my hips until they too pooled at my ankles. “Then I suggest you give serious thought to staying in Erebor once we reclaim it.” The prospect that he suggested was a bit too much to process at the moment. My eyes fell shut from those roughened fingers trailing along the soft skin of my thighs, kneading and stroking as he leaned forward to kiss at my belly. A moment later, my petticoat followed my bloomers and I was left to stand there in just my dirtied chemise shift.

When his hands went for the ends of my shift, I stopped him and urged him to stand with a slight tug of my hands on the fabric of his tunic that still laid on his shoulders. “Undress for me.”

“What about being idle?”

I took a step back away from him when he stood from the edge of the bed, my fingers going to the ends of my shift in response to his question so that he knew my intentions. “I promise I won't be idle.”

His eyes were all intensity, pupils blown wide with lust as he refused to look away from my face, those thick fingers of his untying the laces of his breeches from memory. He shrugged off his tunic easily and thumbed the waistband of his pants, waiting for me. I smirked at how teasing he could be when he wanted to be, lifting the hem of my shift up until it was at my thighs. I stopped and waited for him, grinning when his eyebrow rose again to question my lack of skin.

I glanced down at his socks and he toed them off as gracefully as he could though it was still an amusing sight. When he stood there again waiting for me to reciprocate because with only his pants left, he would be naked and I still in my shift, I lifted the hem of it up higher. He could see everything that I normally hid below my waist and my eyes went to his breeches. 

“Nobility first, my Lord.”

The soft hitch of his breath again couldn't be disguised by the soft grunt of a chuckle before he undid the last of his laces and bent over to pull his breeches down; at the same time, I kept my end of our unspoken bargain and slipped out of my shift, my hair wild around my shoulders and my eyes allowed to take in the entirety of Thorin Oakenshield. 

It was not the first time I had ever seen him naked, the first time being down by the ford when we bathed, but this was the first time that we were alone and he revealed his naked body to me in such an intimate setting. I stepped forward because I wanted to reach out and touch him, to run my hands along the hard planes of his muscles and old scars and kiss every fresh bruise that still lingered on his body. My hands enjoyed the feel of such dark body hair that covered his chest and trailed down his lean hardened stomach to meet where his cock was hard, standing proudly at attention.

It seemed that even though Thorin was as exhausted as I was, it wouldn't stop him from taking what he wanted tonight. It was a change from how my intimate encounters with the Durin's usually went, sex following a large show of foreplay but given how both of us were feeling, despite our sexual needs and urges, I knew I would fall asleep if either one of us decided to do any sort of lengthy foreplay.

He seemed in agreement for when I closed the distance between us, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me, allowing himself to fall back to sit down on the edge of the bed. I readjusted around him as we both scooted back, a strange coupling of him needing to move back and I needing to follow until I was settled in his lap with my ankles on either side of him. We both would fall asleep if we were to lay down onto the bed and Thorin adjusted so that he could kiss me again, his hands underneath me so that he could lift me up and onto the seat of his cock. 

“Aah!” 

I gasped from the sensation of him penetrating me, wetness gathered only moments before from our passionate kissing. Thorin's own breath caught in his throat, overwhelmed momentarily by the intensity of how tightly I clenched around him from the position. The fullness I felt from him was something that made my voice hiss, unconscious words falling from my lips as I praised him. I felt my head roll onto his shoulder even as I moved an arm to try and gain some leverage against his shoulders since with the current position of my legs, I couldn't do anything to control the rhythm .

“Relax, let me do all the work.” 

Thorin's voice was a rough grumble of words, softly spoken and spastic, nervous touches of fingers along my back and along my inner thighs from the sensation behind it. Despite his command to me, familiar because of how often I heard it back in Rivendell, I couldn't relax fully given what I knew I was doing to him. Our bodies were connected so wonderfully, my hips every so often needing to rock into his that made him hiss in response. Thorin was truly overwhelmed by my body's heat engulfing him, the need to sleep making his cock extra sensitive as he lazily thrust up into me. 

Our pace was so very different than what I had grown used to with the brothers since they were most frequently my normal bed partners. Where they were always so fast and rough, leaving me exhausted and ragged, due to how sleepy we both were, Thorin and I were made content with such a languid pace. By all means, the fact that we could fall asleep at any moment should have spurned us on but Thorin enjoyed just being inside me, his powerful hands lifting me and thrusting up, stoking the molten heat low in my belly. 

I gripped onto his shoulder, my arm feeling the heavy thud of his heart from where it rested against his chest, my want to feel him underneath me making me need him more deeply. I bit into the hard plane of his shoulder and delighted in the shudder that I pulled from his body from the unexpected bit of roughness. He tasted of sweat, sharp against my lips and I licked over the bite just because I wanted more of him. I clung to him as he moved against me, our chests rubbing sensually as he slowed down and ground our hips together. 

I let myself relax against him, burying my face into the crook of his neck and kissing the skin there as I felt his cock fill me so completely that it left me breathless. The languid intensity of our position kept becoming apparent to me just when I thought I would forget it, become acclimatized to the pace we kept. 

Despite that feeling and how Thorin still managed to make me gasp and groan with every thrust of his cock, I still felt myself nodding off. I noticed it with a random roll of my head and a soft chuckle heard every so often, my eyes blinking open and then being so spectacularly reminded that I was having sex with Thorin. 

My nerves went a bit into overdrive, adrenaline pumping with the realization that while the sex felt so powerfully good, I couldn't help but fall asleep while in the act of it! No matter how amazing it felt, once I let my eyes close and focus on the sensations, I fell asleep. I almost felt the need to apologize or mention it out loud but once I stopped and actually looked at Thorin, I realized that I didn't need to; it was from the way he slowed his pace every so often, moving me to thrust up and then slowing to a crawl until we both sat and simply were one, that made me understand that he was falling asleep too.

“We're so hopeless.”

I found myself softly laughing into his neck, reaching up to weakly pull his head away from the crook of my own neck; he simply looked exhausted and no doubt I looked the same. I kissed him deeply, his lips responding against mine while one of his hands fisted into my hair, “I can't be in this position anymore.”

It was as much of an admission of him falling asleep as much as it was my own. I was only too happy that it was Thorin who said it and not I.

It was another bout of laughter from me that ensued when Thorin urged me to try and stand and due to the prolonged position, I noticed that my legs had fallen asleep. “My legs are asleep.” I giggled into his shoulder, my arms wrapping around his neck and holding onto him tightly as I laughed myself silly. Thorin couldn't help but chuckle at our predicament but he lifted me from his length easily and set me back onto the bed, groaning as he moved away from me from the soreness of his own limbs left still for too long.

I half expected us to fumble us way into whatever other position that we both wanted to try but as soon as I rolled onto my knees to crawl up the length of the bed, Thorin was on me again, hovering behind me and kissing along my shoulder. 

“Lay down.”

There was an urgency to his voice that my body responded to on a primal level, a fresh wave of desire that made me shiver when coupled with the sensation of his voice along my back. I moved to follow his request, settling down onto the fur and straw bedding and gasping when Thorin adjusted my leg and buried himself inside me again. The combination of the new angle made his cock rock against something deep inside me that made me shudder in ecstasy, fisting the furs tightly and burying my face into them to soften my voice.

The weight of Thorin behind me, trapping one of my legs and using the other as a means of momentum was almost too much. The need for sleep was gone from my body, replaced with just the urgency of needing him and wanting him to continue to make love to me. Each gasp he earned from me spurned him on, his rhythmic thrusts drowning me in pleasure from how deeply he pushed inside me. 

While one of his hands was somewhat confined to my one leg, his other one was adventurous in its own right, roughened palms sliding over the curve of my back, gripping onto my waist, squeezing the plump flesh of my bottom. 

I moaned when he adjusted his angle once again, thrusting in deeper and burying his face into the curls of my hair and inhaling deeply the scent of my sweaty musk. 

“By all that is sacred, your smell...”

The sound of skin on skin became louder, his deep thrusts quickening as he grew closer to his release; he was reduced to incoherent groans as his grip on my hips tightened and he moved in a way that determined that he would finish soon. The rhythm that was so sure before became unsteady and I felt his fingers clench around my hips before he wrested his cock from my tightness and I felt the warmth of his seed along my back.

I was too exhausted to move, not even bothering to groan or whine about not finding my own orgasm. In such a moment as the one that I was currently in, I found that my own orgasm was by far one of the furthest things from my mind; my eyes opened and I turned around so that I could look at Thorin, a smile coming immediately to my face when I saw how he looked. 

The look there was all the reward that I needed. 

He was utterly destroyed, sweat clinging to his forehead and his hair looking shaggy and wretched while the expression on his face was just the picture of what one would look after they were thoroughly fucked. Most of all, he looked happy. I had absolutely no doubt that I looked the same in every way and I chuckled at how satisfied Thorin looked while still mounting me like a beast. 

“Well? Are you going to clean me up or are you going to stare at your claim all night?”

Snapping out of his haze, Thorin moved to the other side of the bed and came back a moment later with a fresh towel from the side table. Carefully, he cleaned me until he was satisfied, throwing the towel aside so that he could lean over and kiss me again thoroughly.

My hands were in his hair, pulling him closer so that he had no choice but to rest on top of me, his body easily covering mine. I felt the shift of his muscles as they tensed, unable to relinquish all the weight of his body since he didn't want to crush me and I smiled at how thoughtful he was. 

It was such a truth that Thorin really was a softie underneath that thickened, outer shell. 

“Were you satisfied?”

His voice was a tremble along my back and I knew that he noticed that I hadn't found my own release as he did but not wanting him to even think to doubt that he was everything I wanted and more, I kissed him again so that I could dismiss any notion of his question, “I was and still am. Were you?”

His smile was so utterly perfect when he allowed himself to be an open book, “You are in my bed, so, I find that it's difficult to be anything less.”

Exhaustion ruled over us again more powerfully now than it did while even in our first position, dragging Thorin down so quickly that I almost laughed at how achingly tired he looked. He rolled off me so that we could slip underneath the furs and after I crawled up to the head of the bed, I settled down against the pillow, sighing from the feel of fur against my side. 

I startled when I felt Thorin slide in next to me, lifting the covers around us both so that we could cuddle closely. I was just about to nod off when I felt his hand urging me over onto my belly, a soft insistence that I gave into, wondering just what he wanted with the new position until I felt his head come to rest right in between my shoulder blades. The heavy weight of him felt comforting but in the back of my mind, I debated whether or not he would be able to sleep the way he laid. I also figured that the position were only a temporary thing but when I heard the soft beginnings of his snores, I knew that he meant to sleep that way for the right of the night or until one of us rolled over. I chuckled from the ticklings of his hair falling over me and reached over as best I could to extinguish the light of the candle.

The utter closeness of how we slept was different for me, not used to every inch of me being surrounded by someone, his arms wrapped around me possessively almost as if he were afraid that I might disappear at any moment. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep...

Despite how utterly exhausted I was, I woke what felt like only hours later with a sound in my ears. The entire room was quiet aside from the snores of Thorin, touches of sensation that traveled along my chest and back gently; his head was still where it was when we first fell asleep and I rested my head back down against the pillows in the hopes that I could go back to sleep.

Something was in the air again, something that just wouldn't leave the outer most edges of my hearing capabilities. It was so faint on the wind but I thought I could hear whispering, touches of words that I couldn't place as a sensation. I tried to ignore it but I couldn't.

When after a moment my eyes almost couldn't tolerate the thought of staying closed, I groaned and tried to adjust given that I was physically trapped into my current spot by Thorin. 

“Can't sleep?”

His voice was groggy, barely even awake as he asked and rolled away from me. 

“No...”

“Go get something to drink. It might help.”

I decided to follow Thorin's advice just because I was desperate for sleep and as I crawled out of bed, I still felt that fact so very vividly in my bones. My shift was still where it was from earlier in the night and I felt along the fabric until I was sure that I wouldn't put it on backwards by accident. 

“I'll be back in a moment.”

I left after hearing Thorin's grunt of acknowledgment, knowing that if I didn't return in a moment as I said I would, no matter how tired he was, he would be out of bed and searching for me to make sure that I was safe and sound. I intended to go back to the guest dining hall, softly opening the door that led to the hallway and leaving it open after I left the room. The main sleeping hall was filled with the sounds of snores, drunken and heavy by the sound of it and the room itself stinking of the stuff. If there were more light available, I was sure I could find some ale in some of their bunks but I tip toed silently out of the hall and made my way quickly to Beorn's dining hall. 

The room was now darkened with only the embers of the fire pit that I could use for light, a soft glow of orange that barely was useful for anything beyond the pit itself. I squinted into the darkness for something that I could use to help with my need to go back to sleep, looking on the tall table for a drinking bowl that I could snatch. 

A sound behind me made me turn in surprise, thinking it to be Thorin. I thought I had taken too long in heading to the hall but when I turned, I saw no one. 

“Hello?”

I heard again the sound of something scuffling nearby and when I finally realized where it was coming from, I felt my heart race and a sweat break out down my back. It was coming from outside, from the very place where Beorn told us not to venture out to! My first instinct was that of my imminent demise, of how I was going to be murdered in the middle of the night after having great sex but even as I thought that, I didn't want that to be true. While I know my Mum would have been pleased with that turn of events leading up to a death, I was not! 

I went to hide underneath the table, shrinking down onto my knees where I heard the scuffling again and saw a great shadow of a creature pacing back and forth in front of the door. The light of the moon from outside shone from underneath the crack and I closed my eyes in terror when I saw a giant snout press against the crack and breathe in a few puffs of air.

“Little hobbit, is that you?”

I recognized the voice instantly even though it sounded strange and growled its words, the sensation of rumbling making it obvious that it was Beorn.

“Y-yes!” I squeaked out, coming out from underneath the table and moving closer to the door, “Beorn?” Whatever the giant creature was outside of the door finally stopped moving, the giant shadow only half obscuring the doorway now. I thought for a moment longer before I put the facts together, remembering that Beorn said he was of the bear clan and Gandalf impressing that he was a skin-changer.

My hand lingered on the hard wood of the giant, broad door, amazed that on the other side was a bear the size that Beorn was. 

“Who else did you think?”

“Um, I don't know... Are you locked out?” 

I thought the question was valid given that it was his house and that he was not exactly coming inside when he had every right to. I just assumed that he accidentally locked himself out in his haste to leave earlier; naturally, I wanted to be helpful so I stood on my tip toes to try and reach for the handle, twisting it so that I could let Beorn inside. 

“No!” I flinched away from the door from the way his voice threatened me, the rumble of it causing me physical pain. “Keep the door locked... It's dangerous, remember?”

“Why?”

“There are others out here with me... we were just about to leave.”

His voice sounded strange while in animal form but there was something even stranger about it because it sounded as if he were hiding something from me. I believed him about there being others with him since I heard them shuffling around loudly behind him in the background but to think that they were dangerous was silly... right?

“Is everything alright?”

“Of course.” Beorn was quick to reply, “Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure...”

“I'll be gone all tomorrow but I want you to go into my garden and pick the flowers you find most beautiful.” My brows furrowed at the strangeness of the favor, “Put them in my bedroom with the one you like the best on the left.”

Despite being so damned confused by such an odd favor, I found myself slowly nodding because it didn't seem so out of the question given the nature of my adventure so far with Thorin and his company. I once thought that just the possibility of going on an adventure was a strange notion. How strange was the idea of picking flowers that appealed to me? All things considering, it was probably the most normal thing anyone had ever asked me to do, though who was asking me was the most unusual part of it.

When I heard nothing in return from Beorn, I realized that he couldn't see my nod through the door and I replied back with an easy acceptance, though I was sure that he could feel my confusion over the request.

Silence pervaded the air between us but a quick glance at the bottom of the doorway and the lack of noise indicated that Beorn was still there on the other side. For some reason, I got the feeling that Beorn didn't exactly want to leave the house and I stood there for a moment longer despite not having anymore official business with the skin-changer. 

“Could you not sleep?” He asked when the silence grew too much, his voice casual and light with just a hint of worry.

“Not really... I thought I heard whispering.”

Beorn shifted, his giant form rustling heavily behind the door, “We bears consider whispering an ill omen. If you want, little hobbit, there's a leaf found in a blue jar in the lower cupboard that can be chewed and used to sleep. Just one though.”

After speaking his piece, Beorn's giant form disappeared from behind the door, the sound of bears running off into the wilds from beyond the safety of the oaken walls of Beorn's home. I thought of the skin-changer's words as I went through his lower cupboards, using the light of the embers to try and see which jar was which, wondering why the bears thought that whispering was an ill omen. 

Once I found the blue jar and took from it just the one leaf as requested (and damn was the leaf huge!), I decided that whatever Beorn said of the omen, I couldn't exactly trust it. Beorn was an unusual fellow and, really, to trust the word of a creature who shat in a sack was not really something a proper hobbit lass could do in all good conscious. Still, I was grateful for the advice and for the leaf, chewing the large thing thoroughly as I put the jar back into the cupboard and headed back off to bed. 

When I nearly tripped over my own toes the moment I was back in the main guest hall, I nearly cursed with how Beorn failed to mention how potent the leaf would be once I chewed it. It must have slipped his mind or seemed like a minor detail that maybe just one leaf was enough for him or even most creatures but that leaf was enormous and I was a tiny little hobbit! I was forced to wobble along, needing to use the bunk bed frames to keep myself steady, all the while feeling my world whirl and spin on itself in a way that threatened to send me to my knees at any moment.

“Laddie?”

Dwalin's voice was rough from sleep, a caress on my cheek; it was too dark to see him what with only the light of the nearly full moon filtering in through the viewing hole in the roof but I could feel the concern in his voice as he watched me no doubt struggle back to Thorin's room. I did not want to worry him, already hearing that he was shifting in his bunk to sit up but my world rolled again and my legs started to weaken. 

“Coouldn't sleeeep. Bed. Thhorinn.”

I fell to my knees, unable to support myself any further, the edges of the world going dark with the overwhelming urge to sleep threatening my mind and body. I knew without a doubt in the world that I was going to fall asleep right then and there in the middle of the floor and was surprised when I felt strong arms effortlessly lift me. 

“Thorin's room?”

Dwalin's voice was soft in my ears, warmth on my face and I nodded weakly, wrapping my arms around his thick neck and getting comfortable. It felt dreamy and weightless, being carried back to Thorin's room and Dwalin easily crossing the distance from his bunk to the doorway and from there to the actual bed; he was gentle as he deposited me back down onto the straw padding and furs, waiting until I readjusted so that he could tuck me in. A moment later, Thorin was pressed along my back, “My thanks, Dwalin.”

I tried to thank him too but it just came out as a mumble.

Dwalin did not need to reply back to our thanks, one last tucking in being all that I could remember before I heard the sound of his heavy footfalls leaving the room and the echo of the door closing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my little head canon that while Beorn may be a skin-changer, while he's in his bear form, the instincts that are there as an animal can still overwhelm him, hence why he wanted to keep everyone inside. He didn't want to hurt anyone.
> 
> Or at least that's what makes sense to me given that Gandalf just told everyone to stay inside and there wasn't any reason other than skin-changers rolling around outside.


	43. What is Generosity?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo needs to be woken up and Kili and her have a chat...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter today but once again, it's full of emotional progression! PROGRESSION!! 
> 
> Also, I've been watching way too many of Aidan Turner's movies and TV shows and he is just such a great seducer.  
> He's delicious. Mmm, Mmm, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
> 
> Enjoy! ^ ^

It was morning when I woke, head groggy from the ale of the night before and so achingly exhausted that I wasn't sure if I really even slept at all during the night. I grumbled into the linen of my pillow, turning my head and rolling into a ball so that I could pull the fur covers over my body closer and snuggle down deeper. I didn't want to get up at all and in the back of my mind, I was a bit worried that even though I was physically doing more than I ever would while back home in the Shire, the adventure was making me altogether lazier.

Nothing could feel as good as the bed currently did and until I heard a loud knocking on the door, I was just about ready to doze back off into a light slumber. The covers felt divine against my skin so I promptly ignored whoever it was at the door just because I could and also because I wanted to sleep in more. The loud knocking came again and I groaned because it just wasn't fair that after almost getting no sleep the night before, I was expected to rise and greet the day as early as the others. 

Speaking of the others... 

I lifted my head and finally opened my eyes so that I could look around the room quickly, noticing that Thorin was missing from the room but that his most outer layers of clothing were still where they were the night before. 

I snuggled back into the bundle of furs, thinking that if Thorin didn't feel that it was necessary to wake me up, then I truly didn't need to be up. The knocks became a pound against the heavy door and I finally snapped, cursing loud enough that the person could hear on the other side.

I heard the door open, “Oi, laddie, you gettin' up anytime soon?” Of course it would be Dwalin, I lamented on before I sighed loudly into my blankets, burrowing further down in the bedding and not bothering to acknowledge the older dwarf. He sounded as if he were in a pleasant mood, his voice tickling across my cheek gently but as I didn't want to get up, I pushed the thought out of my mind. Whatever torture he devised for me that would require him to wake me and give him satisfaction was something I wanted nothing to do with.

He crossed the room easily, his heavy boots rumbling the bed slightly before I felt his hovering presence on my back. I could feel those eyes of his boring down at me, waiting for me to properly acknowledge him but I refused. I thought that maybe if I didn't say anything that he might think that I wasn't there anymore? My Mum used to allow me to sleep in later when she pretended she didn't see me in my bed.

“Wake,” He nudged me hard, my body being jostled underneath the pile of furs, “Up, or there'll be no breakfast left for you.”

Oh, the allure of food was strong and it made my belly growl but the allure of the bed was something not to be denied either. Since I was currently a resident of the bed, I knew that the idea of staying inside of it would be a much better idea than the prospect of getting up for food. I decided to stall for time, hoping that striking up some semblance of conversation would be enough to put me back to sleep, where the possibility of earning Dwalin's sympathy through my innocently lulled face would make him back off. 

“Where's Thorin?”

It was a good topic for starters and I was curious to know where he went, even if I already had some clue.

“Sparrin' with Fili.” Dwalin nudged me again to wake up _and_ physically get up from the bed.

“And Kili?”

“Sleepin', the wee babe.” 

I had to curse about the fact that my plan was fatally flawed because I couldn't very well strike up a conversation with one of the most tight lipped members of our company. 

“It doesn't even feel late enough to _have_ to be awake...” I grumbled and attempted to retreat further into the covers but Dwalin prevented me from doing so by taking hold of them in his giant hands and yanking the furs free from my loose grip. Dressed only in my chemise shift and having taken refuge under warm furs all morning, the sudden change was startling. Hobbit instincts paired with newer dwarven proprietary made my lack of actual respectable clothing come to the forefront of my mind, especially since I was exposed before Dwalin rather than any of the Durin's.

“What are you doing?!” I shot up from the bed and tried to grab the covers but Dwalin just drew them out of reach and grinned, “Makin' sure you get up, laddie. Now, get up.”

My cheeks were flaming red and it only grew worse when I heard the teasing tone in Dwalin's gruffer voice, playfully poking away at my cheek as if all of this were so highly amusing!

“I'm almost naked- !”

“Aye, but yer not,” He let the fur covers go and turned to head back to the doorway, a wide grin on his face, “and Thorin sent me here himself. I won't tell ye again. Get up and meet me for breakfast.”

With that final warning, he left me alone in the room so that I could get up and get dressed and head to the main dining hall where we would eat breakfast and he would, with no doubt in my mind, spring some sort of strange dwarven activity on me. I was hungry but the grogginess in my body still hadn't left me even with the whirl of activity seconds before.

I remembered what Dwalin said about where the brothers currently were and thought of a plan to buy myself some more time. By all means, it wouldn't stop Dwalin if he decided to come looking for me but at least coming back to the room, he would notice that I was missing. It would buy me some free minutes. I got up from the bed quickly, not even bothering with my clothes, and opened the door to the bedroom. My eyes scanned the hallway and what I could see of the main section of the guest hall and when I saw the coast was clear, I snuck over to the furthest door and quietly went in.

I made sure to quietly turn the handle so that the door clicked shut silently but when I turned around to face the bed, I froze in my spot. A sly grin spread on my cheeks as I took in the glorious sight of Kili sleeping there on the bed; by all means, I knew that he would be sleeping from what Dwalin told me but he failed to mention that the younger brunette dwarf would be completely naked and definitely a picture of perfection.

I took my time crossing the room, my eyes locked onto the decadent form of Kili lying there on his back, his limbs splayed and his hair a mess of tangles on his pillow. It was a strange sight to see Kili so naked just because I knew it wasn't his way to normally sleep but given his request the night before, I smirked at the idea of what the brothers must have been doing. He looked exhausted, not even snuggled down into the furs, barely holding onto his decency with the way very little actually covered him.

I had to climb up to get into the bed but even after I settled in next to Kili, he didn't wake, his even breathing a sure sign that he continued to sleep deeply. I didn't want to wake him but he just looked too delectable lying there, defenseless and without any knowledge at all about how much I wanted him. His face was relaxed, his lips subtly parted while they lightly blew a few strands of dark hair away from his mouth. I gently moved the hair aside and leaned down to kiss that stubble covered jaw.

I watched his breath hitch, his chest stutter unevenly, eyes flutter and his brow furrow; sure that he was waking up, I moved so that I could lie down next to him and press against his side to feel that warm skin through my shift. My movement combined with what already had started fully woke the dwarf next to me, a deep sigh coming from those parted lips before I felt his arm come up and rest on my shoulder.

His fingers tightened, squeezing slightly, “Fili, you've become so small.”

His drowsy voice against my bottom was a welcomed sensation when I thought of how it had sounded the night before when he was drunk.

I chuckled and leaned over so that I could kiss his jaw again, happy when he turned his head towards me and accepted another kiss and another when I went for one. His head stayed turned, his eyes still shut and in the back of my mind, I was worried that if I tried to kiss him again as I did last night, he would move away again. Not wanting to give in to my worry though, I shifted upwards so that I could press my lips to his, a weight lifting from my chest when he allowed it and kissed back. My fingers delighted in the texture of his roughened cheek, the way the muscles of his neck flexed when I attempted to deepen the kiss, my tongue licking a line across his lips.

When he pulled away to rub at his face, I watched him and tried to see the emotions that Thorin and Fili seemed to be able to read so easily on my own features.

“Feel better this morning?”

“Yea, I suppose so.” There was still something bothering Kili, that much I knew from the way his voice trailed along my bottom, “Definitely drank too much, I think.”

I giggled at that because if there was one thing that I agreed with him about last night, it was definitely that he drank entirely too much. He seemed well enough though, his eyes blinking awake and sitting up so that he could stretch. He looked around the room, his eyes darting about as if in search of something, “Being honest with you, I don't even remember a lot of it. I didn't say anything weird, did I?”

I thought about the previous night and how he hadn't said anything weird but acted a bit strangely, “Nothing too weird.”

“Good, where's Fili?”

Sometimes I was surprised by how quickly Kili could get up after he first woke, not one to lie about in bed and be lazy like his brother and I often were. Both of us loved to snuggle and linger in bed for hours even after we woke up, our duties or the necessity for meals the only things that pulled us away. The complete opposite, Kili never really lingered in the bed and made it a point to get up and move about as soon as he was physically wide awake. This morning was no different but now that I was alone with him, I wanted a moment to reaffirm the feelings I had for him and vice versa. 

Kili was such a complicated fellow when I really thought about it, a fact which would make some of the other company members laugh because of the running joke about how simple minded Kili could be. Yes, Kili could be simple and reckless and almost damn near unendurable when he was sweaty and hot but when it came to his brother or his feelings, he was tight lipped and completely enigmatic.

The brothers were such an interesting pair because of the duality of their relationship and sometimes it was hard to see where I was in all that. It was simple to see where I was when they both acted the cheerful, happy go lucky brothers, who joked easily and pulled me along to get into trouble but on the other side of that were the two lovers.

The lover in Fili, I knew. 

The lover in Kili?

I reached out for the dwarf before he could slide completely out of my grasp, “Wait.”

He stopped and looked at me, curiosity shining in those eyes as he waited for me to say whatever I wanted to say; he saw that there was something on my mind, something that I wanted to ask him or show him but he didn't quite know what. He wasn't as good at reading people as Fili and Thorin were. “He's with Thorin... Do you think we could...?”

I trailed off, unable to really express the thought that I wanted to stay here with him and just enjoy his company with the possibility of more kissing or even the chance of us making love. Or, just, more cuddling. Cuddling was great too. 

“We could...?” Kili repeated with a teasing smile on his face, his voice trying to coax the words from my mouth. 

“You know; you, me, here... together?”

I tried to be coy about it, tried to play up a sense of cuteness so that Kili would be interested and by the look on his face, it seemed to work in my favor. The teasing expression on his face spread into a grin and he twisted on the bed so that he was on his knees, a look akin to a predator stalking his prey.

“Together?” He echoed, his voice a teasing grope as he crawled closer, “Well, let's see if we can't try,” His hands grabbed onto my calves and pulled me down so that our hips collided, “and do something together then.”

His lips met mine again in a messy kiss, his hips rocking down into mine as he pinned me to the bed with his hands. The roughness of his voice lingered in my mind and soaked the juncture between my thighs, my lips eagerly responding to his ravenous kisses that encouraged moans from my throat. He was rough, grinding our hips together and groaning into my mouth each time he covered my lips with his own.

We both seemed desperate for completion if our rallied pace was anything to go by, so when Kili pulled away to take a breath of air, I reached down between us so that I could grab his cock and guide it inside me...

My entire body tensed without wanting to, my eyes widening in surprise.

He wasn't hard. At all.

I realized that his body was tense as well, having known a second too late the path that my hand traveled. He didn't say anything as he leaned away from me, his eyes refusing to meet mine. They were darting back and forth, looking around the room for something but unable to find whatever it was again. He sighed, “I”m sorry... I guess I still don't feel right.”

His voice trembled along my bottom strangely; normally I could associate such a sensation with him being nervous but the sensation was more pronounced and on the verge of feeling like nails along my skin. It was hard to discern if he were angry or nervous. With his explanation, I kind of wanted to think that this was what shame felt like...

Oh! Oh yes, of course! Shame! I was well aware from the stories that the hobbit wife circle told that this was sometimes an issue within the Shire, husbands not being able to become hard when they didn't feel well. It was a perfectly natural thing from what I'd heard and as I already knew that Kili was an amazing lover in the times when Fili was around, I was more than able to take that sort of excuse rather than anything else.

Kili's face was closed off, his eyes looking away from me still so he couldn't see when I smiled at him but his expression changed into one of surprise when I gently guided his face to look back at me, “Don't worry, it's okay.”

I hoped that my simple words were enough to ease his mind and he seemed to understand that sentiment for a moment later, his eyes brightened and he smiled at me to soothe me. I was expecting it since it was the natural progression of how they eased my worries so I angled my forehead when Kili leaned over and kissed my forehead. “You're lovely Bilbo, really.”

His mood was back to normal from the way the sensation smoothed over the curve of my flesh and I sighed contentedly when he laid down beside me, still at least wanting to be close. I was made to be at peace with his simple flattering and glanced over at the brunette, who laid on his back again looking at the ceiling of Beorn's house. 

His eyes were focused on the ceiling and yet staring far off, his breathing steady. I was happy that Dwalin hadn't come barging in yet and closed my eyes after I rolled onto my side. I wanted to attempt to find some more sleep since I still felt a bit groggy (it must have been from the leaf, i thought) but after sharing such passionate kisses with Kili, I found that my body seemed to be on fire. I wanted to be touched and I wanted to feel the heat of another inside me.

I smiled at the thought and let myself drift off into those musings.

Minutes passed in silence between Kili and I, an unusual thing for him since he loved to talk. Out of nowhere, I felt his hand reach over to lift a honey colored tendril away from my face, “What is it about you do you think Fili likes best?”

I opened my eyes, surprised by the question and where it came from. His voice was once again doing that peculiar sensation that I couldn't quite place. I figured it for shame earlier but why would such an emotion come with that question?

I didn't know the answer to that and with his question looming, I found my thoughts taken up by that instead.

Such a thing was never really spoken about between the four of us when I thought about it. Thorin never asked me what I loved about his nephews nor had they ever asked what I liked about them or Thorin. We declared ourselves openly enough when the moment came or in private but... this was ... unusual.

I wanted to figure that this was Kili's impulsive curiosity as I looked into those brown eyes that gleamed at me expectantly, something that he decided to ask without really thinking about. I thought of all the things that Fili ever told to me and everything I ever noticed about him when we were together when he showed a more personal side to me.

From what my memories were able to say, I wasn't sure what particular thing Fili liked best about me. If I was going by what he paid most attention to, it was difficult to say. The way he acted, he behaved as if he liked everything about me.

“I don't even know... What do you think?”

“Oh, I don't know. Your eyes?” Kili replied, an easy smile on his face that I've seen hundreds of times before. His eyes went back to the ceiling, almost dismissing the question as easily as he asked it of me. Somehow, it didn't seem important to him anymore.

Since we were on the topic though...

“What do you like best about me?”

I observed the dwarf as he grew ruffled around the edges, no longer content to lie back on the bed and bask around so casually. He sat up quickly, rubbing his eyes, “I really don't know, Bilbo. It's a bit too early for this.”

He went to the edge of the bed quickly, intent on standing and getting dressed and running away from the question and what I was asking of him. I didn't want him to go thinking that I nagged him or that I didn't care or that I was being intrusive. Kili and his emotions were a strange thing, something he kept hidden away where none could see them if they weren't his brother. I didn't want him to think he couldn't share them with me.

In all actuality, I wanted him to feel as if he could talk and love me as easily as he could his brother. I needed him to know that I wanted to understand him and his complexities, the emotion that must pull at him when concerning the love he possessed for his brother and the love he felt for me.

“Your generosity!”

I shot up from the bed, grabbing onto his arm and stopping him from leaving the bed side; he looked back at me, once again prevented from leaving. He looked confused by my words, not understanding why I would blurt such a thing but he at least gave me the chance to explain.

“It's what I like best about you: your generosity.” When his eyebrows emoted his expression, it was easy to see the family resemblance between him and Thorin. Kili and Thorin were a lot alike, I was beginning to understand in more ways than I previously thought. The way they contained their true emotions was another point to be added. 

“I can see the love and respect you have for Fili and Thorin and everyone else in the company; your humor and want to make everyone happy... I can only assume that it must wear on you but to put on that face everyday, especially around Fili... it's incredibly giving of you.”

Kili turned to face me from where I sat on the bed, his gaze boring into mine with a dark emotion swirling in those depths. We were eye to eye given the height of the bed and him standing and the fact that we were finally in that same space felt so utterly strange. I watched as Kili smirked, a light chuckle coming from his lips in a huff before he ran his hand through his knotted hair.

“Do you want to know something funny?”

I nodded, watching as Kili came close and hugged me against his chest where I could hear how fast his heart was racing, “A long time ago, there was someone who used to be with Fili and I. She was great; fun, kind, adventurous... just like you.” My eyebrows furrowed in confusion because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to like this story or not. 

This was the first time I had ever heard of the brothers being with someone else other than me in anything more than just passing light; my first instincts were to be offended about this being brought up so casually without Fili present.

“No, no, don't be like that,” He laughed and ran his fingers through my hair to ease my mind but with the way his voice still crawled over my skin in that peculiar manner, I found that I wasn't able to be pacified.

“She felt the same way about me too though... that was I generous.”

“What happened?”

I was nervous of the answer even though I knew full well what happened considering that I was here with Kili and Fili as their lover.

“Oh, it went great for a while,” He ran his fingers through my hair gently, his voice kind and faraway and his tone now lightly tracing along my skin. Finally I was able to relax with the tone something that I could recognize. “Then... it stopped being great.”

“Why did it stop being great?”

“Oh, a lot of things, really. She was a human, became a bit too fat for my tastes, started being too needy, Fili started to screw up in the smithy more often, I started drinking more,” He paused in his explanation, “She found out about us being brothers when it slipped out during sex,” I looked up and saw that the expression on Kili's face indicated that it must have been quite a doozy for the girl when she heard that little slip of the tongue. In the world of the Big Folk, family members together in such a way was considered just as abhorrent as it was in the world of the dwarves.

“So yeah, just a lot of things.”

“...and she didn't bother to give it a chance?”

Kili smiled with amusement and tapped the end of my nose with his finger, “No, in that regard she was not like you at all.”

Once more he held me close against his chest, “What's so funny about all that though?”

“It's funny because you and her both called me generous and just before she left, she told me that I was the most selfish creature she ever knew.”

Kili's words sat in my mind like a heavy stone and like a heavy stone that was thrown into a pond, the ripples of such a story made my mind whirl with questions about the specifics about everything that ever happened to them in the past. I pulled away so that I could look at Kili and in my eyes, I knew there was the reflection of sadness for where the brothers used to be and the sadness they must have faced while with others.

“Do you think I'm going to leave, Kili?”

His brown eyes gazed at me, emotions behind them that I couldn't understand because they bled together so quickly. His face looked pained for a moment before it softened and he smiled, “No, I don't think you are.”

There was that strange sensation again...

I once again pushed away the thought of what that sensation could mean just because it wasn't the right time to approach the subject. I set my hand on Kili's chest so that I could feel that heartbeat of his that still pounded relentlessly underneath his skin.

“I wouldn't do it lightly. I love Thorin, I love Fili- ” Kili nodded and sighed, “I know you do.”

“I also love you.” He stopped and looked at me as if he were mildly confused by my confession, “I know we haven't been able to spend as much time together as Thorin or Fili but I do love you. I wouldn't have any of you without the others.”

Kili's eyes searched mine for the truth of my words and slowly his hands came to cup my cheeks. He was just about to say something when a pounding on the door shocked both Kili and I.

“LADDIE! Ye in there?!”

Kili expression looked startled and worried for Dwalin's voice didn't sound happy and it was definitely something I could confirm with the way it practically raked down my cheek. 

“What the fuck?” The dwarf looked at me for explanation.

“Did I forget to mention that I was hiding from Dwalin? I thought I mentioned that.”

"No!" Again, Dwalin pounded on the door, forcing Kili to look back at it, "You left out that detail!"

“Oh...yeah... So I'm hiding from Dwalin.”

Before either Kili or I could do anything to try and make a plan of attack - or defense in this case – Dwalin burst into the room, eliciting a squawk of protest from the still very naked Kili. He went to try and placate the older dwarf as I went to make a break for the doorway by slipping off to the side but instead of letting himself be distracted by the younger brother, his eyes went straight for my figure.

“Oh no, ye don't!”

I squeaked in fright when it became obvious that I was completely trapped by the very bulky dwarf and a wall, practically hiding behind the bed as Kili kept trying to distract Dwalin.

“Just let me go and get dressed!”

“No! You had yer chance!” I tried to run past him but for as bulky as Dwalin was, he was agile for his size and just as I went for an opening, he swooped down, twisted on his foot and caught me by the waist. I yelped in protest and tried to break free from his grip while in the background, I knew I could hear Kili shouting, constant pinching on my bottom that turned into a slap at least twice. 

“Oh! Come on! Put her down! That's unnecessary!” 

“Get some clothes on, lad! I don't need that in my face!”

I was hoisted up and over his shoulder, my legs trapped by his broad forearm; I shouted to be put down as he turned out of the bedroom and headed down the hallway. Amid the shouts and laughter from Kili and the promise that he would see us at breakfast, Dwalin didn't bother to listen to any of my own pleas to allow me to get dressed, just continuing to carry me to the dining hall until we were crossing that threshold. 

The other dwarves that were present laughed at the sight of my being manhandled and even Fili and Thorin, who were sitting just outside of the open door and cleaning their blades stopped to look at me in shock. Thorin instantly noticed that I was still only in my chemise shift and Fili looked about ready to jump up and haul me back off to the bedroom.

It was completely undignified the sound I made when Dwalin literally lifted me from his shoulder and forcibly sat me down all without my actual participation but once I was sitting there on the bench with a plate of food in front of me, I had to deal with the fact that I felt like a total child.

“I want my clothes!”

I refused to eat anything until I was in something that didn't make me feel as if I were practically naked in front of all the dwarves! 

“I gave ye the chance. Now eat.”

I didn't want to eat anymore if I was to be treated like a child while doing so! I was a proper Hobbit and I was more than old enough to stand as an equal with any of these dwarves! By Yavanna, I even saved Thorin's life! I deserved some form of respect!

I looked back for support from Thorin or Fili but upon seeing my eyes directed at him, Fili just looked at Thorin for guidance in this situation and I got my answer when Thorin's eyes went between Dwalin and I; after piecing together what he could since he was the one who even gave Dwalin the order to get me up while they were sparring and given that they were now long done, he just rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning his Orcrist.

My jaw dropped at the dismissal and I really couldn't deny that I now felt like a child more than ever! 

I did the only thing I could really think to do in this situation: I pounded my fist on the table and ate. 

I was starving, after all, and if Thorin didn't care that I was only in my undergarments then whatever! Piss on him too!


	44. The Wanting of Someone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo enlists the company of Ori for Beorn's favor, unknowingly inciting the jealousy of a certain dwarf...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Chapter is going up today, after all! 
> 
> I felt all day like I was forcing myself into this chapter and then all of a sudden, BOOM! Shut off the music and there's the chapter. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

Breakfast after that turned out to be a bit more relaxed given that everyone sat around doing nothing and I decided that I would just deal with what I inevitably brought on myself.

Having thrown his clothes on haphazardly and content to look like a very startled mess, Kili joined us in the dining hall, giving his morning greetings while he gathered a few items of food onto a plate. He charmed Ori with a compliment at what the shy dwarf was knitting before venturing off to the outside porch to sit down and bask in the warm sun. Fili and Thorin still sat by the doorway, cleaning their weapons but every so often, I would feel Fili's eyes lingering on me. I figured it was because of the fact that I was still in my shift but as Thorin and Dwalin decided not to care about it, I found it pointless to hurry my eating just to accommodate them.

I shrugged off the momentary feeling of discomfort that I felt from sitting there in just what I considered my undergarments and enjoyed the first portion that I ate, chewing apple slices and eating biscuits that were honeyed and delicious. They sat heavily in my stomach and the nausea from being manhandled around quickly subsided with the fresh addition of food.

A quick glance around the room revealed that while the dwarves were up and about and doing whatever activity they fancied, Gandalf was no where to be seen and neither was Beorn. I remembered what Beorn told me the night before about how he would be gone all day but I was left wondering if he brought along Gandalf without our knowing? 

“Has anyone seen Gandalf?”

I asked out of curiosity, looking around at the others; my first suspicions were proven to be correct in that the dwarves hadn't notice that Gandalf was conveniently absent. I watched as they exchanged glances with one another, asking the same question silently if someone had seen our wizard. I rolled my eyes at the silence because I found it amusing and down right ridiculous that I was the only one who even noticed that Gandalf had mysteriously disappeared off somewhere! 

“I woke early this morning and he was already gone.” 

Fili replied distractedly, working a cloth over his blade as he went back to cleaning it. The way he said it definitely gave me the impression that he thought it nothing special that Gandalf decided to wander off but I felt my eyes narrow at the thought; Beorn and Gandalf were both missing from the compound, or rather Beorn willingly left us here in Gandalf's care and the very same wizard decided to just go off and leave us unsupervised. He knew what the dwarves were like and given his warning on his friend having a temper, why would he chance that we might cause problems?

Did truly no one else seem to think that that was strange?

A quick glance around confirmed that no one else seemed to even want to expend the energy to theorize what the wizard and our host could be up to. In the end, I had to just drop it and go back to eating, enjoying the way the open door allowed a soft breeze to run through the dining hall. From what I could tell, the sun was beating down nicely outside and with the lively breeze, the heat from the day before was only a bitter memory.

“Almost done?”

My attention was stolen away from the view of the rafters high above us, my eyebrows automatically knitting in confusion at Dwalin's question so impatiently asked, “No, why?”

His attitude irked me for some reason, the fact that I was up and about not enough to get him to leave me be for more than a few minutes. I also had figured that with my being there that whatever obligation Dwalin had to Thorin would be done and over with and I would be left to my own devices for the rest of the day. Well, given that whatever special interest Dwalin had in me, I was determined not to be frazzled by it or shoved along.

Besides, if I was to be in my undergarments for the duration of my meal, I wasn't about to let anyone push me around! I would eat to my own sense of urgency!

“We've got trainin' to do. I want you ready for real swords today so hurry up.”

The confusion on my face didn't really lessen even when I knew why he wanted me to hurry; in fact, I ended up reclining a bit while in my seat, not even bothering with proper table manners as I allowed myself to lean heavily onto an elbow that didn't even mind being on the table. His reaction to my impudence was enough to have me smiling, his eyes darkening and a sneer of annoyance threatening to show.

His expression only got better when when he noticed that I actually slowed down on my next bite, chewing so slowly that he started to become impatient with it.

The show continued, my eating slow and staring at Dwalin as he steadily grew more and more exasperated by my needless defiance. I was sure I was being no better than the brothers, who were always content to make trouble for the older dwarves but I found that I didn't much care. 

I was starting to get rather full when I decided to let Dwalin know that I actually couldn't train with him until later anyway; no one else knew of what Beorn asked of me and I would need to tell them so that they didn't think I was being needlessly rude. 

It would've been a sight though to have me brush off Dwalin's training regime so that I could go and pick flowers just for the sheer joy of it.

As soon as I swallowed the mouthful of bread, I tossed the rest down on my plate, “I can't train until later anyway. Beorn asked me to do a favor for him.”

That made him curious, his attention now focused solely on me, “What favor is that, laddie?”

I noticed the look on his face and the tone in his voice, a light fluttering of a sensation across my cheek that instantly made me aware that he was being protective of me. My thoughts wandered back to the night before when he carried me to bed, the time in the thunder-battle, and even when he gave me his cloak when it was pouring rain. I found myself grinning at the idea that Dwalin was like a silent protector to me.

A quick turn to look at Thorin and Fili behind me and I saw the same curiosity in their eyes, the protective gaze more noticeable on Fili's face than on Thorin's. 

As I had been tempted to do since first sitting down for breakfast, I rolled my eyes at how overbearing they were being. I stuffed another piece of bread in my mouth, already preparing the next by slathering it with a generous amount of honey.

“It's a secret.”

I teasingly decided to leave it at that, swiveling around in my spot on the bench and hopping down. I nibbled on the bread that I still carried with me as I left the dining hall and all the dwarves, sure that they looked at me in surprise and shock at having so casually dismissed Dwalin. 

Once I was back in the room that I currently shared with Thorin, I finished up my snack and gathered up my various articles of clothing that were still strewn about. I laid them out on the bed, my nose wrinkling in distaste at how they were wrinkled and dirtied from the days before; I sniffed my shirt and really looked at it, my distaste showing for how filthy it still was despite having washed it only a few days before. Adventuring really was quite awful when it came to having clean clothes though I figured not grabbing my bag again after I smacked Gollum with it was more to blame for that than the adventure itself.

Speaking apart from my clothing, I actually had to remind myself that if my clothes were bad enough to make me grimace that my actual body must have smelled something even more foul. I was a hobbit and if Lobelia were here, she would probably have no short amount of harsh words for how much I allowed myself to fall from grace. 

I needed to clean myself up. Badly.

I noticed a washing basin on the far side table and when I went closer to grab it and head out to the well that I saw the day before, I noticed that it was already filled with clean water. A quick testing with my finger made me groan from how cool it was, equal parts pleasure at the thought of washing up and also a bitterness for when I would possibly ever again feel a warm bath. Nonetheless, I had to be grateful for the fact that it was there and ready for me, something that I assumed could only have come from Thorin collecting it earlier in the morning while I was sleeping. I gratefully took the washing cloth that was already laid beside it and scrubbed what I could from my skin with the soap that was nearby.

I would have to see about washing my clothes and hair later on, I ruminated over as I got dressed again, carefully tying the ties to the various under layers that I wore and buttoning my skirt and shirt into place. Once my suspenders were over my shoulders and checked so that they weren't twisted, I opted to wear my vest since it was a nice enough day and buttoned it with its one lame button before I heading back off to the main dining hall.

Most of the dwarves had scurried off by then with the others smoking near the fire pit and drinking again; I shuddered at the memory of drinking more, my stomach doing flips from the memory of how much everyone drank the night before. 

Over in the corner, I spotted Ori with his brothers, quiet and knitting while he listened to them chat back and forth about whatever it was they normally talked about. They seemed animated and Dori looked red in the face, most likely yelling at his younger brother for whatever new slight the snarky dwarf must have done or said. Though I knew I could have easily asked Thorin, Fili, or Kili to join me while I collected the flowers that Beorn told me to, I wanted company that would actually appreciate the beauty behind what I was collecting. 

The person who I wanted to share my time with while doing the task given to me was Ori since he seemed to be the only dwarf in the company who I thought would appreciate going out on a nice stroll through Beorn's gardens. Maybe we could even pick some flowers that he liked? 

“Pardon me, Ori, but do you think I could request your presence?”

The three brothers looked up at me from where they sat, an odd look on their faces that wondered what in the world could Ori actually be specifically requested for while the youngest brother himself blushed hotly and fumbled with the knitting needles in his hands, “My presence?”

“Yes,” I beamed at him, my palms delighting in how the fluttering of fur tickled slightly, “I'd like your company while I attend to my task.”

Ori nearly dropped the needles such was his nervousness and confusion but my smile and the way I seemed to bounce with energy at the prospect of him joining me made him reconsider. His eyes darted to Dori and when the older dwarf said nothing, Ori nodded and set his needles back into his bag before standing up to join me, “I-I'd love to, Miss Bilbo.”

I hadn't taken very long to wash up and come back out to the dining hall but when Ori and I walked out onto the porch, I saw that Thorin was no where to be seen while Fili and Kili lounged off to the side out of view. They were engaged in low conversation but once Kili saw me, both of them became distracted. Their expressions both were that of confusion at the sight of Ori and I together.

“What's going on here?”

Kili chuckled, his voice teasing at me while his eyes locked onto Ori; he positively oozed charm at the quiet and reserved dwarf, his voice dropping an octave and his eyes becoming heavy lidded. Kili was a natural charmer, not having to do much work in order to woo anyone but the effort the current attempt made me roll my eyes because of how obviously teasing it was. Ori was not immune to it even though he must have known it was just a jest, blushing even further when it became clear that Kili's full attention was on him. 

With a shove at his brother to knock it off, Fili's attention was on us, “You two off somewhere?”

“Off to the gardens, actually.”

I hooked my arm through Ori's and dragged him off to the garden that I originally saw Beorn in, the one that was hidden behind the main house. It was by far the biggest garden that he tended and in it were a vast collection of different breeds of flowers that varied from color and texture. Upon rounding the back of the house, I saw that some of Beorn's animals tended to the flowers, giving us a passing glance of interest before continuing their work.

We walked through the giant patches of flowers, careful to stay on the dirt path that Beorn laid out for the animals and he to work on so that they didn't needlessly crush any flower patch while they cared for another. The flowers were gorgeous and from the way that Ori's eyes lit up, he thought so too, fingering them gently and leaning down to sniff at some of them. As a hobbit and friend of Gaffer Gamgee, I had a vast knowledge of flowers and looking around, I saw just in my vicinity alone the sight of daisies, tulips, and sunflowers. 

“So, Miss Bilbo, what favor did Beorn ask from you?”

Absentmindedly, I unhooked my arm from Ori's and wandered the garden, feeling the healthy soil beneath my feet and the sun high above my head. “He asked me to pick the flowers that I found most beautiful.”

I leaned down as I explained, cupping a light blue bellflower so that I could see it up close. It was gorgeous but it was not the most beautiful flower I saw in Beorn's garden. “Do you like flowers, Ori?”

Ori followed closely behind me, keeping me company as I originally requested but he stopped as well and eyed the flowers closer when he wanted to. Beorn's garden was full of colorful flowers but more than that, there were flowers with colors that I never knew to be possible before. I spied a rose bush that lurked near one of the oak trees but it wasn't the normal red that I was used to seeing but a pale pink. 

“I do, though I never get to see quite so many as here. Dori and Nori made me a garden at home but I only grow Kaffer lilies.”

I listened as Ori told me all about his garden back in Ered Luin, how a lot of it was a trial and error sort of endeavor since dwarves did not make it a point to know anything about the raising of plants. His eyes glowed brightly as he explained about how he lost plenty of flowers to poor soil care and just because there wasn't enough natural sunlight available where their house was. Kaffer lilies, Ori noted, was a type of flower that came from a traveling caravan and grew best in shade so given the location of their house, it was an ideal flower to have.

We went through the gardens, talking about flowers and Ered Luin and I managed to decipher through his stories that Dori and Nori cared a lot about him and did most of everything to make him happy. To Ori, it sounded of doting and being overbearing but in reality, it felt like they were making sure that he wanted for nothing.

I also discovered that Ori truly had been the best pick to be my companion for this, a lot of our flower knowledge being on par with one another's; what I knew from Gaffer overlapped nicely with the knowledge that Ori gleamed from books, their pictures the only way that he could identify some of the flowers he saw in Beorn's gardens. 

“Sunflowers!”

He beamed happily, his voice a happy brush of fur once more on my palms, as he darted off down one of the pathways and led me to a patch of sunflowers. Sunflowers were common enough in the Shire so I was a bit taken aback by how enthusiastic Ori was for them. Some of the sunflowers were the normal size of what I'd seen back home but others were massive, their heads eagerly facing the sun for sustenance easily as big as my own. 

“Do you think Beorn would mind if I picked one?”

“I do believe that was my task.” I giggled in reply to his nervous question, watching as Ori's shy expression widened into a big smile. He was careful in his choosing of which one he wanted and gentle in its removal, his fingers delicately holding the large flower, its yellow petals so vividly perfect.

“Sunflowers only grow where there can be good sunlight... I've only ever seen them in books.”

After that, Ori joined me again walking through the garden, both of us looking over the flowers and I wondering which ones I found to be merely pretty and which ones I found beautiful. Beorn's garden led us eventually to a section of trees that sat along the back of the horse stables, their pink blossoms fluttering in the breeze.

“Those are beautiful...”

Ori's awe was mirrored by my own because even though I recognized the tree and the flowers blooming along its branches, the peach blossoms that were before us were gorgeous. 

“So this is what you dodged training for? Flower picking?”

So in awe of the beautiful tree, Ori and I both jumped at the sound of Kili's voice, his voice pinching at me sharply while his tone was baffled and amused. I turned just as the brothers caught up with Ori, looking over at the tree and dismissing it entirely within the same second. While Kili poked at the sunflower that Ori still held in his hands, Fili approached me.

“So why are you picking flowers anyway?”

I wanted to laugh at the fact that the brothers were being such a bother, discontent to be ignored by the younger members of the company when we had free time. In a way, they were so used to me constantly fawning over them and staying near them that I really had no one else to blame but myself for their behavior. Nevertheless, I rolled my eyes and approached the tree, indicating for Fili to come up behind me and lift me up. “Help me up, I want these ones.”

I felt Fili come up behind me and grip me by the hips, easily lifting me and holding me up while I reached for a low hanging branch and picked two of the blossoms. 

“You didn't answer my question, Miss Hobbit.”

I smiled at the light teasing of his voice, the smile on his face that made him look playful and young; at the same time, Kili had plucked a few pieces of grass from the ground and looked around, “I could never understand why people like flowers. Can't eat them, can't keep them. What's the point?”

Once I was back on my feet, I waved to Ori to follow me and ignore the brothers. Funnily enough, I noticed that even though they did not approve of our activity, they followed after us, watching Ori and I as we talked about how pretty the peach blossom was.

I had a fondness for white and pink flowers and as we came back around to the guest section of the main house, I noticed that we were upon the patch of flowers that had types that I didn't recognize.

“Just because you two have no love of flowers doesn't mean the rest of us don't.” I grinned back at the two of them and strolled with Ori onward to the garden, “Ori and I happen to love them and he's been a wonderful companion so far.”

“So the flowers are for Ori, are they?”

Fili hustled up to almost block my path, his eyes darting between Ori and I, wondering just what the connection was there between us where I would possibly want to give him a gift. I ignored the thought because of how wrong it was and I wasn't alone with that notion since I heard Kili's laughter from Ori's other side, “Don't be silly, they're obviously for us.”

“They're actually for Beorn and if you two don't have anything productive to do, then go away!”

I knew that my voice was a bit more forceful than it needed to be to get the point across but it was frustrating having been shadowed all morning by Dwalin and now by them. If they weren't going to be helpful while Ori and I looked around in Beorn's gardens, then they might as well sod off! The expression on my face was more than enough for them to know that I didn't much want their company, the both of them looking a little like wounded animals before Kili tugged Fili off back to the house.

Now left alone with Ori again, I smiled at him and directed us onward, “Shall we continue?”

 

It was the afternoon by the time Ori and I finished our little adventure through Beorn's gardens, ogling over flowers and telling each other even more stories about our families. I found that in Ori's presence, it was easier to talk about my Mum, who loved gardening and planting flowers and then spreading them around in vases all around the house on sunny days. Likewise, Ori also loved to hear about my Dad, who used to be just as interested in books as he was.

In return, I heard a few too many embarrassing stories about Dori and Nori and how utterly cluttered their home was from how much Dori saved and how much Nori acquired through his less than honest methods. I also discovered that unlike Erebor where the city was completely under the mountain, Ered Luin sprawled with its main section underneath the rock of the mountains and its markets and lower classes outside under the sky.

Ori's growling stomach was the real reason why we decided to call it a day, and looking at my choices, I felt that I truly had picked the most beautiful out of Beorn's entire garden. The peach blossoms, white orchids, and purple asters were each gorgeous in their own little ways and looked good when held together in my hand. I was satisfied with my choices and left Ori so that he could eat and I could figure out where Beorn's room was.

As I didn't feel like wandering around Beorn's house without any idea as to where I was going, I found a dog that could help me and after asking him to show me the way to Beorn's room, I was kindly led there and left alone. Beorn's room was equally as massive as he was, having more than enough room for himself and a guest should he want it without any difficulty. 

The bed was made of the same oak as the rest of his house, the dark varnish shining from what light was available from the hallway and the window. The rest of the room was decorated with tall side tables, a dresser filled with trinkets, and a closet that had clothing strewn about in a hurry. As I didn't want to be rude and linger in Beorn's room, I hurried to the end of Beorn's bed and set the bundle of flowers down just as he requested.

I hurried out of the room after that, careful to be quiet about shutting the giant door, and thought of getting a bite to eat before I went and found Dwalin. I actually was quite interested in the training that both he and Thorin originally involved me in, wanting to improve and be able to assist in battle should the need ever call for it. 

“Miss Hobbit.”

I startled when I heard Fili's voice behind me, gasping from how unexpected it was and turned to face him; it was strange that he was even in the main section of the house, being abandoned as it was with Beorn not there. I felt my heart racing in my chest from him spooking me and I sighed deeply as I tried to calm back down.

“What are you doing there, geez! Nearly gave me a heart attack!”

I chuckled at him from the humor of him startling me and shook my head before I started to head back to the guest dining hall. 

I was stopped in my path from the feel of Fili's hand on my wrist, my eyes widening in surprise as he gently pulled me back so that I wouldn't leave. I found the gesture cute because of how little personal time we had spent together lately – flushing from the thought of him wanting some alone time right now – but upon looking at his face, I knew it was not that.

There was a dark emotion in those blue eyes of his that bore into mine, his hand letting my wrist go so that he could pull my entire body close.

“I've missed you.”

His voice grabbed at the flesh of my bottom but it wasn't until his physical hands kneaded where his voice touched me that I understood just how much he wanted. He urged me closer where he groaned into the contact, my own eyes fluttering closed when I felt that he was already hard in his breeches.

“I just saw you earlier.” 

My hands were in his hair, my eyes too busy seeing how much he wanted me for me to comprehend how quickly we both turned from our normal selves into such wanton messes. Already he had incited in me a fire that tugged at my heart, his hands making me gasp from the pleasure of feeling them crushing my body to him. His lips were eager to claim mine, trying to kiss me and being denied when I leaned back away from him.

His eyes were desperate, his voice gruff when he growled, “You deny me?”

I tugged him down so that I could whisper in his ear, “I want you to work for it.”

I felt him shudder against me, his hands arching me up so that he could grind the bulge of his trousers against me. 

“You want me to work for it?”

His voice was possession and hoarse, his desire nearly breaking him; at the same time, I noticed that the sensation against my skin reminded me of Kili's from that morning. Once more I tried to decipher it's meaning.

I was guided back down the hallway, our pace rushed and uncoordinated, nearly tripping in our haste to get to wherever Fili wanted us to go. I understood the press of a door behind me, moaned his name when his teeth nipped at the skin of my neck and reached out to open the door so that we could go in. The instant we were inside the room, Fili turned us so that I was once again pressed against the door, trapped between him and the cool surface.

“I'll work for it,” He breathed out as he once more nipped at my neck, his hands reaching down underneath my skirt to untie the laces of my bloomers and yank them down. His voice still lingered over me strangely, his teeth biting at my shoulder once he shoved aside the fabric, “But you'll have to beg me for it later.” His eyes were hot and heavy and he was desperate as he crushed his lips to mine with bruising force, panting as he pinned me to the door and rutted against me.

“What brought this on?”

I asked him as he had me step out of my bloomers; the second my legs were free of them, his fingers dipped underneath my skirts again and found my wetness, guiding his fingers to rub at my hardened bud and drive me crazy. I gasped from the sensation, holding onto his shoulders as a wave of pleasure washed over me and made my knees tremble.

“Do you want him?”

Fili's question coupled with the sensation that I couldn't recognize left me confused, what thoughts I could manage instantly torn from me when his thick fingers pressed inside me and started to work me to orgasm. “Want who?”

I clung to him as he curved his fingers and expertly circled my clit with the pad of his calloused thumb, his eyes watching me for my reactions and seeing that I was close. He stopped himself before he could bring me to the edge. I groaned in frustration for being denied and grabbed at the fabric of his jacket, my teeth worrying my lip when he slowly started to explore with his fingers.

“Flowers for that beast and you were in his room.” Fili practically growled his displeasure, his fingers once again picking up where they left off, “Do you want him?”

I moaned because once more I was worked closer to the edge of my climax and once more, Fili stopped; I wanted to pull his hair and bury my face into the fur of his jacket with how idiotic Fili was because once again, he was wrong about everything.

I thought about the sensation of his voice and how it lingered over me and without even wanting to, I found my mind replaying the earlier conversation I had with Kili and picking at the various things he said. My eyes widened in realization because mistakenly, I thought it had been shame earlier. 

“Is this jealousy?”

Spurned on by the truth of my question, Fili stopped his ministrations and freed himself from his breeches, “Why wouldn't I be jealous? You're mine and yet you court him by giving him flowers.”

“He asked a favor of me while he was away. Nothing more.”

The heat of my words stalled the golden haired dwarf, his eyes staring into mine as he tried to see the validity of my words, knowing already that I spoke the truth because I had never lied to him at any point in our adventure.

“This is the truth?”

“Of course it's the truth!” I tugged him to kiss me, groaning when those lips met mine again and his tongue delved into my mouth so that he could taste me. “You're such an oaf, Fili.” I breathed out when he finally pulled back, his expression now wanting without the darkness behind those eyes of his. Still, I could sense the need to claim me pull at him, his hands making that evident when he lifted my skirts and picked me up. 

Once more I was made to realize that he could easily hold my weight, easily keep me pinned against him. I wanted him desperately and I couldn't handle waiting anymore. “Please!” I kissed him again when I felt his cock rub along my wetness, groaning when he felt how slick I was. 

“Beg me for it, Bilbo.”

His voice grabbed at my bottom, forced the breath from my lungs with how wrecked he was from holding off.

“Yavanna, I need your cock!”

His pupils were blown wide with arousal, sweat gathered on his forehead, and yet he did not rush to follow up my words. His eyes were desperate with emotion, searching for something in my own that could appease him.

“I need to hear my name, Bilbo. I need to hear that it's me you want.”

His turmoil was enough for me to snap out of the haze of arousal that kept me from thinking rationally; I saw in Fili's face a need to be assured even by the simplistic means of saying his name while I was having sex with him. Given the nature of our relationship and how Fili himself seemed the most comfortable with sharing me, it was heart warming to find that at times he could be prone to insecurity and doubt. 

“Fili, I need you to make love to me.”

Those words were all it took to assuage any of Fili's doubt, his lips once more claiming mine as he guided his cock inside me and groaned from the tightness that engulfed him. Each thrust was hard, driving into me deeply and hitting against soft walls in all the right places. I clung to him as he thrust into me, his gasps of my name driving me closer to the orgasm I long sought.

We didn't last long given how rough we were with one another, Fili's words pushing me over the edge when he groaned, "I want you to cum on my cock." He swore as he thrust in deeply, "Need to feel everything."

It was a dangerous request but I couldn't have kept my orgasm from happening anymore than I could willingly ask him to stop or slow down. My hands clung to him as my orgasm ripped through me, my body shuddering against him as he was quickly forced to pull out, and came right after me.

It took me forever to catch my breath afterwards, still clinging to him as he gently guided us down so that he could get off his feet, his head resting on my shoulder.I listened as he panted and gulped for air, giggling when I heard him chuckle beside me, his voice light with happiness as it pinched at me. 

“I love you, Miss Hobbit. I truly do.”

“As I love you, you big, silly oaf of a dwarf.”

I truly meant it as well, stopping him when he moved to get up so that I could just hold him and enjoy his close presence. I didn't want to head back to the others just yet. I wanted it to just be Fili and I. I wanted him to understand that I wasn't going anywhere.


	45. Finding Our Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili and Bilbo share a moment courtesy of Kili

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if there's much to say about this chapter. It's a lot of feels combined with something concrete coming from Fili, which is always nice, right? 
> 
> I suppose if there's much to be said at all, it's that the chapter is shorter than normal. 
> 
> Ps. Looking back at the beginning of this story, I couldn't help but notice that the chapters used to all be shorter and somewhere along the way, 6k chapters became the normal instead of 3k or 4k.

Fili and I were very much alike when it came to the pleasures of life, both of us not wanting to get up after I first stopped us.

We both sat content on the floor, our clothes only just righted and tied back into place, but aside from that, we both were awash in indolence and seemed to be proud of it. As a hobbit, this sense of laziness was nothing that I wasn't accustomed to but for Fili to bask in it when not sleepy, well, that was saying something. 

I breathed deeply from my place between his legs, his solid chest at my back providing a soothing rhythm as he allowed his hands to wander along my arms. For how quickly the events of the day had seemed to rile him up, Fili calmed quickly after we had lain together. He seemed much more at peace now, his hands loosely holding me, no longer needing to cling desperately.

I supposed all Fili needed was a chance to talk to me about the issues on his mind but what with us being surrounded by the company and Thorin and Kili, he felt as if he couldn't.

As my fingers idly stroked along the back of his hand, I felt I understood his reasoning to want to find a place for ourselves where the two of us could exist and ease the doubts of the other if it were needed.

“Do you think Beorn will mind that I ravaged you in his bathroom?”

His voice tickled pleasantly along the skin of my bottom and I laughed both from the sensation and his words, both of them equally inciting joy. “A hobbit would find it scandalous but I think he will laugh. I think he will find it especially funny considering what I am.”

Fili chuckled at the statement, his hand wrapping around my waist as he rested his cheek against the top of my head; I heard him breathe in the scent of my dirty hair and giggled when I felt him smile into the honey colored locks. It was obvious that he could smell how ripe my hair was but he refused to say anything negative about it. I decided to do it for him.

“My hair alone could rival a sweaty dwarf any day.”

Once again, Fili chuckled at the idea and smoothed his fingers over the soft tresses, “Perhaps, but soon enough Erebor will be ours and baths will be aplenty for you.”

The thought of the Lonely Mountain came fresh to my mind, always in the background but never one to make itself more well known unless someone around me was directly talking about it. Erebor still seemed like such a long ways off and yet, from what Gandalf told us, we would only need to get through Mirkwood before the mountain was nearly upon us. Closer and closer the day would come when we would have to face up against Smaug. 

Well, in all actuality, it was actually the day that I would need to try my burglar skills that I didn't really think I had to steal treasure from a mountain guarded over by a dragon. I wasn't exactly sure where the dwarves fit into that picture since I was specifically hired for that task.

However, if all went well and we managed to somehow take back the dwarves' home, then what was beyond that? I thought back to my night with Thorin and how he suggested that I give some thought to staying in Erebor once it was reclaimed.

Life outside the Shire seemed like a crazy notion, a distant thought that I could barely even conceive. There had always been a Baggins at Bag End and if I left...? What would become of the hobbit hole that my father specifically made for my Mum?

I thought of my cousin Drogo, who was happily married... Perhaps if I could give it to him then I would actually think of leaving? My thoughts raced with the expectation of plannings but I couldn't really dwell on them. I couldn't leave the Shire and no matter what was going on right now in this relationship between the four of us, there was still so much uncharted territory. So much that still needed to be explicitly said. 

Yet, as serious as Thorin was, he had so calmly and simply offered such a suggestion to me...

“What will _you_ do when Erebor is reclaimed?”

I asked Fili, wanting to know what his future thoughts were in regards to us and just what he was looking for in general; I felt like I had a vague idea with Thorin from his suggestion and what he hinted at in regards to Motherhood but Fili... for all his talk of love, I hadn't heard much of anything substantial.

“I don't know. Probably become a smithy again for a while.” Fili casually replied,a smile on his face, a humor in his tone that I felt on my skin. Without wanting to, I remembered Kili's story from earlier. “I enjoyed it. Did you know that I was once a smithy?”

His tone was light because he didn't know anything about what Kili told me from earlier, thinking that this was the first time I had ever heard of his skills as a smithy. He lifted my hand in his and threaded my fingers between his own, a peaceful smile on his face while he squeezed my finger, “I could have made for you anything though I loved making rings.”

“I did actually know about you being a smithy." I grinned at him, rubbing my cheek against his playfully, "Kili told me.”

His eyes hardened only for a moment, a quick flicker of emotion that whispered in the blue of his eyes that I was sure that if i had blinked, I would have missed it.

“Oh? What did he say?”

His hand remained steady around my own, his gaze just as loving though not as open as before. I was saddened by the fact that something in his past with Kili made him close up to me emotionally, so different from how it was whenever Fili and I talked of ourselves or even Thorin. I wanted Kili to open up about his feelings in general but with Fili, I wanted him to open up about the relationship between he and his brother. 

I felt that when it came to them as a pair, there was something he felt he needed to hide from me, a hidden fact that he thought he needed to keep a secret from everyone else.

“He told me about a time with a girl and how it ended badly...”

I didn't want to mention details because -as rude as it was- I wanted to dig. I wondered if Fili would've been smart enough to see what I was doing or if the love he bore for me would make him careless.

“Did he mention her name?”

I felt it in the way the sensation of his voice crawled along my rear, how it nervously prickled on the edge of anger and anxiety. He did not want to talk about it but he also did not want to shut me out. There was something in the story itself that made Fili upset because his eyes were still warm towards me.

I wanted to dissolve the tension that I felt in Fili's body, the way his hands seemed to struggle to stay gentle and not press for more information; I responded to his question by sighing and scooting up into his chest, the unexpected and abrupt motion making him chuckle and relax.

Still he kept my hand in his, calloused thick fingers tracing along my knuckles, “Are there that many times when it ended badly?”

I joked about it, giggling with a smile on my face, hoping that Fili would loosen up and tell me more; his reaction was exactly as I hoped it to be, smiling wider and kissing the skin of my knuckles with tender care and passion. When my eyes looked upon his face again, his expression was open again and his body relaxed.

“A few,” A snort of amusement, “Did he say that this girl in particular became fat?”

My eyes widened because of how quickly he guessed which story Kili told me. It made amend my earlier thought that there had been so many in the past because if there had really been so many in the past, then Fili wouldn't have been so easily able to guess.

Upon seeing my eyes, he grinned at me because of how he managed to guess it so quickly. 

“That would've been Thandra then,” He began, his eyes trailing back to my knuckles, more at peace telling me while not looking at me from the way his voice became its normal stroke against my bottom, “She wanted me to leave Kili when she found out everything. Obviously I couldn't – didn't.” He quickly amended, his eyes rushing for a moment in his own thoughts. He closed them, sighing, “I didn't leave, obviously.” He firmly repeated, nodding to himself.

I watched him as his face saddened from whatever his thoughts were before he squeezed my hand lightly, directing a soft smile back on me, “No more of this unpleasant talk...”

From the look on my face, he knew I would not persist in the topic, that fact alone easily making him happy because from the sensation of his tone, I knew that he was already struggling internally from whatever memories the story brought back to the surface. His facial expression softened instantly, wanting desperately to run away from whatever darkness plagued him, happy because I was allowing him that.

“What would you have us talk about then?” I poked at him playfully, earning a soft yelp and a struggle from having poked him where he was ticklish. 

“You? Me?” His voice teased as his eyes smiled at me, his happiness again evident because we were talking about something between the two of us and not about something that would happen only between he and his brother. 

I returned that smile to him, “The others?”

He laughed because of the look on my face, from how eager I was to include them into any and all conversations.

“So, all of us together and where it goes?” Fili inquired as he tightened his hold around my stomach, bringing me up closer so that he could cuddle with me and smell my hair again.

“Where it would go...” He repeated, trailing off because he wasn't exactly sure where it would go if his voice was any indication; it nervously fluttered along flesh though his face looked sure of himself.

“I'm not sure of everyone's intentions but from how easily you accepted being in Erebor, I imagine that Uncle already broached the topic with you?”

“He sort of did, yes.”

Slowly he nodded, his thoughts settling into the new information, “Then I would ask that you accept the offer should he ask you directly.”

“What if you ask me before him? Can I accept yours?” My heart fluttered in my chest and I felt the hand that Fili had around my waist come up to rest on my chest. He felt how heavily it beat in my chest, the thumping rhythm visible. Wanting to assuage any worry of mine, Fili brought up my hand, the smooth skin of the back of it rubbing along the coarse hairs of his beard.

“I'm too much of a coward to ask you right now. Unless I'm absolutely sure your answer was yes, I wouldn't ask.”

I stared at him, wanting to know his thoughts and understanding of where his words came from. As open as my expression was, I knew that without a doubt that if Fili asked me to move to Erebor, I wouldn't have a definitive answer. I understood and accepted his want to not ask me because it was his way of protecting himself from any sense of doubt that could come over him at any moment. 

“But what I wouldn't give for that.” My eyes found his and he leaned down to kiss me, “You in Erebor with us forever.” I smiled at him, feeling my cheeks flush from how sincere his words were and how intensely his adoration shown to me. Such words though made me feel embarrassed and I pushed his face away so that he would give me a little space.

“Enough of this talk; I'm blushing over here.” 

Fili allowed the playful push, his hair a mess like my own since he hadn't the real chance to comb it back out and redo the braids since the stream that we bathed in a few days ago. Still, he did not allow me to disregard the words, “You talk of embarrassment but I am speaking the truth to you. When all of us are with you, we are at peace. If Thorin broached the topic of living with us in Erebor, then even he understands that we would have a future with you beyond that of just reclaiming a mountain. We would ask you to stay with us, to love us, to give ourselves over to. To make a home that couldn't be taken away again.”

My breath caught in my throat from how powerful his words were, how lovingly they stroked along my bottom and how they made his blue eyes glisten fiercely; he meant every word he spoke and he meant it in regards to the others as well. He knew where they stood even if I wasn't exactly sure of it and what was more, he enjoyed the thought of all of it. All that he spoke, he enjoyed every single word of it.

Thoughts of my night with Thorin came again because of what he professed and where it would have technically made him stand in the culture of the hobbits. While Thorin proposed the idea of making me a mother was something he greatly desired, Fili's mentioning of a future was the same thing worded differently.

“Is that a want?”

I couldn't help but breathe out the words, their traces lingering over my lips as Fili digested my words and -more importantly- their meaning. He understood within the second, his face growing serious because on some level he realized that I was asking something concrete of him. I was asking for something that even I was not sure of.

“I couldn't imagine a better life, being with you for the rest of my days. To have us grow old.” The sensation of his voice lingered and possessively kneaded my bottom, his physical hands turning me so that I could straddle his lap and kiss him deeply; already we were becoming heated again, our lips locking and our tongues wanting to taste the other. 

When we finally pulled away, he chuckled softly, his voice a soft pat that made me rock into his hips, “What's so funny?”

“I just imagined you with grey hair.” His fingers lingered over my waist while his eyes trailed along in my hair. I smirked at him, reaching back to pull on his hair and reveal the tanned expanse of his neck. I watched as his pupils dilated and smirked when he started to harden underneath me again. Perhaps there was something to be said about how a normally rather alpha dwarf preferred a certain amount of roughness? 

It gave me thoughts.

“Me with grey hair? I think you would look much more handsome.”

“I'll have to wait a long while for that. Though,” The sensation of his voice cupped at me underneath my skirts, sinking to dip low and linger enough to issue a groan from me. At the same time, his hand reached around to pull me closer, needing to feel more of me than he already did, “Would I have to wait long for a child? Our women sometimes do not have children for many years after marriage.”

I stopped just as I was about to kiss him again, surprised by his statement enough for it to stall me. My expression was something that I couldn't understand as I looked at him, my eyes searching his for the correct words to voice what thoughts I actually didn't even have. His own eyes sought mine as desperately, wanting to make sure that we were both on the same page, knowing that we were and sure that he was only giving voice to thoughts we both mulled over in our whims. 

I licked my lips, his eyes glancing down to follow it before his eyes found mine again, “Is that a want?” I repeated my words from earlier...

Our gazes held each other, my hands nearly trembling as they gripped the fabric of his jacket. Fili's face was nothing but seriousness, his brows furrowed unconsciously and his jaw tightened.

“Want is not enough of a word for that.”

The touch of his voice nearly gripped from how much he needed and he surged forward to capture my lips again, his hands going for my vest and unbuttoning it so that he could start to strip me.

A thump on the door interrupted us, freezing both of us right in the middle of what we were about to do again, “Fili? Bilbo? You two in there?”

I sighed in relief at the sound of Kili's voice, laughing when I felt Fili relax as well and indicate that he wanted me to move so that he could at least move off to the side. I hurried to clear the way for him, getting up and away from the door so that Kili could come in. 

“You two finished in here?”

There was a teasing gesture to his voice that I was happy to hear, a soft pinching as Kili came into the room and closed the door. I kind of figured that he needed to tell us something but I watched as he just sat down on the other side of the door where Fili and I just recently vacated. Kili looked to be in a much better mood than he was already, a contentment in his posture as he glanced at Fili and patted the spot next to him. Fili was eager to comply with the silent request, relaxing into his brother's shoulder with a worry free expression his face. At the same time as Fili did all that, I was delighted when I noticed that Kili opened his arms to ask me to come and be close to him as well.

I found it amusing and interesting that when Kili wanted love and reached out for it, Fili and I almost jumped at the chance to provide it for him. I went to him, feeling his fingers wrap around my wrist gently before he pulled me down into his lap, enveloping me in a tight embrace that he sighed into.

“Everything get worked out?”

Kili's voice was soft and curious, not at all his light joking tone. I wanted to know if he were talking to me but when I looked up, I saw that he was looking at his brother, the elder meeting his eyes coolly before pulling his brother into a soft kiss. 

“Yep, everything worked out. I was a dumbass and you were right.” Fili's voice was an easy stroke along my bottom, his sincerity obvious in the tone of his voice and from the look he directed at his brother. His fingers wrapped along the back of Kili's neck, pulling him closer so that they could rest their foreheads together. “I really appreciate it. I don't tell you that enough sometimes.”

Kili squeezed his arms around me, bundling me closer as if I were suddenly precious to him, “It's alright. I don't often get the chance to fix things like this.”

All three of us sat there together in a quiet silence until Kili suddenly piped up, “Oh! Which reminds me; Uncle wanted me to tell you that Gandalf came back, Bilbo.” His voice pinched along my bottom and I squirmed in his lap, startling when his hand patted along the curve of my butt, “Nope! None of that right now. Dwalin was also looking for you too. He's _really_ determined to make sure that you get to real swords today!”

With his message delivered and his official business concluded, Kili didn't exactly feel the need to hop to and head out to where the other dwarves were. In fact, despite how much the younger brother impressed to Fili and I that we should have hurried out to greet Gandalf and finally not avoid Dwalin anymore, none of us really seemed that inclined to pull away from one another.

It had been so long since the three of us were content like this, seeking to enjoy our place there in Beorn's bathroom.


	46. Lessons with Dwalin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwalin finally manages to get Bilbo to train again...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a monster for not updating. 
> 
> Between rereading Game of Thrones, watching the same show and making sure I'm caught up with Doctor Who and The Borgias, I haven't felt like writing at all. 
> 
> There's pieces of the the next three chapters but this is the only one that's finished. :/
> 
> The good news though is that another chapter will be up tomorrow. XD

When the brothers and I finally left the room, it was with an air of joviality that became the brothers far better than the mood of discontent that so recently was more commonplace. Truth be told as well, I mused as Kili twirled me with all the skill of a dancer when we left the room, it was an atmosphere that had been sorely missed.

Kili bounced with a skip in his step and Fili followed on behind us all the way to the guest dining hall where we saw Gandalf already seated at the far end of the high table, eagerly tearing large chunks from a loaf of bread and scooping them into his carrot soup. When the three of us came into the hall, I immediately noticed that his robes were dirtied with dried mud and that he looked as if he had traveled quite some distance.

All around him though he appeared to suffer the presence of the dwarves. He would not answer any of their curious questions of where he had been. Off to the side, Thorin and Balin waited and when the brothers and I went to their side, Thorin eyed me calmly before he sighed, “He won't tell us anything until he's had his fill.”

His voice played along the skin of my waist gently but I could tell that he was a little annoyed by how coy Gandalf played. I too was curious to know where the wizard had been away to just from the appearance of his robes and how ravenously he dug into his meal.

Even though I wanted to wait with the others for Gandalf to finish his meal and offer us his explanations, Dwalin spotted me in the hall and barreled his way towards me. His form was hulking and menacing and before I could say a word to him, he had hold of my arm and was shoving me out the doorway. 

Thorin and the others knew what he had planned already so despite my yelps of surprise and shock, none of them so much as lifted a brow at my hasty departure.

“Outside. Training. Now.”

I ended up being dragged to the front of Beorn's house where the ground was flatter, nearly tripping over my feet when Dwalin finally let me go. When a stick was thrust into my hand, I almost laughed at how determined he was to make me train but a moment later, I felt the breath rush from my lungs and the pain in my back from when I was knocked down to the ground.

I blinked in surprise. In pain. I was on my back?

I stared up at the sky, coughing when I realized that my chest hurt and that Dwalin had actually already attacked me and sent me to my feet! I wasn't even aware that we had started! 

“Up, laddie. I'm a much different teacher than Thorin.”

If that was the explanation of what happened, then that was something of a understatement.

As I turned over and got back up on my feet, it was my first instinct to want to yell or scold the older dwarf but I saw that Dwalin was already standing there with a stick in hand and looking as if he were in a foul mood. I knew from the previous sensation of his voice on my cheek that he wasn't but it still made me think twice about mouthing off.

I shrugged off the visages of discomfort from when I landed harshly on my back and remembered the position that Thorin taught me from days previous. I bent my knees and held out my stick, arm bent at the ready while my other arm stayed behind me and out of trouble. 

“Adjust the elbow, it's too far out.” Dwalin barked out, his voice like a thumb pushing against the skin of my cheek. I adjusted my elbow as instructed and waited for him. A moment later, he was striking out with his stick and I was dashing back just as I had been taught. The last time I trained with Dwalin and Thorin, I had been allowed to “run away” as often as I needed in order to get the hang of it or feel safe enough to attack but as Dwalin saw fit to remind me, we weren't training with Thorin. I wasn't allowed to step back more than two times before Dwalin lashed out with his stick, so fast and powerful that I was caught off balance by it and knocked down.

Each time I was knocked down, Dwalin shot me a grin and waited until I stood again before beginning again. Much in this fashion the two of us went back and forth, him quick as a snake and I attempting to remember not to take more than two steps back unless I wanted to be knocked down again. Whenever he went on the offensive though, I would forget about the no two step rule and wind up again on either my butt or my back.

When I picked myself up from the ground again for the fifth time in a row, I huffed loudly, irritated by the fact that my clothing was covered in dirt and that my hair clung to my face uncomfortably with dirt and sweat, “Any advice for me?”

I questioned as I returned to my position and went on the offensive, determined not to be knocked down again; I lashed out as quickly as I could and was ready when Dwalin parried the attack, using his successful block to try and go on the offensive though he was unable to do so considering that I dodged away from it and once again went on the attack.

“Attack more cleanly.” Dwalin rumbled out as he parried my attack, shot back out with his stick and tried to catch me off guard. I was forced to step back, barely knocking the stick away from me when he went for me, “Waste less energy... and-”

He continued to strike at me as I backed away again, again, and again, “And?”

I realized it a moment too late how many steps I had taken in my efforts to get away from him, “Get off your back, laddie.”

I blinked in surprise and a second later found myself down on the ground again, the air once more pushed from my lungs as soon as I slammed into the dirt.

“Up, we'll go again.”

I swung back to my feet this time a little frustrated by how often I seemed to be taking a dirt bath. “Can't I take more than two steps back?”

“No, Thorin's happy enough to let you wander the length of a forest before ye make the offensive but I'm not.” His voice tickled along my cheek teasingly and finally tired of how my vest clung to my form awkwardly from the sweat and dirt, I unbuttoned it and tossed it aside. I opened two of my buttons of my skirt so that I could feel the breeze along my moist skin and I squat down again to show that I was ready. 

“Can't you at least call out the numbers until I've gotten used to it again?”

Dwalin grinned at the suggestion and nodded before he went into his own stance, motioning that he wanted me to strike at him first. I did so eagerly, wanting to shove that smug grin off his face and he parried my attacks easily until he finally went to attack me. 

“Three!”

He barked out, nearly a clap to my face but just as I went to parry my three position, I realized a second later that he was actually at my six and that I was flat on my back... again!

“You lied to me!” I fussed as I kicked up and stood my ground, “Why would you lie?!”

I was frustrated by his training methods, wanting Thorin here to regulate this nonsense and keep me from becoming so whiny that I would stamp my feet around like a child. Dwalin seemed to take amusement in my frustration, staring me down and grinning his white teeth at me as if he were about to laugh, “Why wouldn't I lie, laddie?”

He did laugh then, his large fingers coming up to knock me back with a playful push on the forehead. “You could actually be of some help to me?”

I suggested this time backing away from him so that he couldn't touch me; I moved around him, my steps careful because I wasn't sure if he would strike out at me with his stick or stay still. I didn't know so I kept on the move, circling when I noticed that he was following me eye for eye, step for step. He kept me in his vision just as I did him. 

“Now why would I want to do that?”

“Because it would make the lesson easier, for one.”

“Ah, but that isn't the way I do it. Ask the wee lads how many times they were sky gazing while they trained with me.”

“But I'm no 'wee lad'.” I mimicked and noticed that my tone was only just shy of mocking and that was when Dwalin noticed that I wasn't exactly being the most friendly of students. His attitude changed from playful to authoritative in half a second, reaching out to grasp me by the shirt so that he could maybe yell a lesson into me. Unfortunately for him, we hobbits were quicker than we looked and I managed to avoid his fingers though they had come close enough so that had felt them brush the fabric of my shirt.

I held my stick out again, ready to face him and quicker than I could parry, he swung his own at me and knocked it clear out of my hand; for added insult, his other hand snapped out and he roughly pushed my shoulder, adding force for when I would land in the dirt.

The force of it slammed me down, once more making me cough the air from my lungs before I saw the shadow of the bulky dwarf hovering over me.

“I know you're no lad, _laddie_ , but even our lasses have training in this.” He offered me his hand so that he could help me up and gratefully I took it. How easily he swooped me up reminded me just how much strength he held but a quick glance down revealed that when caught unaware, he had a tendency to rest on the soles of his feet. He took a step back as he settled me back onto my own two feet and passed me my stick again.

“You'd do well to keep in mind that no matter the class, all dwarves are taught to fight when they are wee dwarflings. Even the crafters go through the basics. Lad, lass, and dwarfling each.”

Dwalin fixed his eyes on me, “Remember _that_ next time you want me to go easy on ya. Fili, Kili, and even Thorin have each wound up on their backs when facing me. I won't go soft on you just because you're a lass and certainly not because you're favored by them.”

Though I had always known that Dwalin's words were blunt and not meant to harm in any way, the last part of his sentence bothered me in a way that I hadn't expected. Not since the Misty Mountains did I think of being an accessory to the line of Durin and by product, my worth dependent on whether or not they liked me. What Dwalin said reminded me of that time and I wasn't keen on that since it felt so far from the truth.

“I saved Thorin's life with my paltry skill.” I reminded him because I was hurt and I wouldn't so easily forget it and let it go without nipping at his heels.

“Aye, but I'll not kiss your toes for it.” Dwalin's grin was more pronounced than ever, his eyes delighted by the fight that I was giving him. Even his voice that tickled along my cheek could not hide how much he was amused by my lack of control over my own emotions. It seemed amusing to me even when I thought about it and how months ago I would have stayed silent or even tried to fuss my way through my discomfort with manners.

How changed I was compared to the proper hobbit creature that I used to be. Where once I would have tried to talk my way out of this, I felt the keen urge to slap him across his cheek exactly where his own voice touched me. I would slap him for the slight and be done with it!

He read all of it on my face and his eyes quickened with glee at the sight of my anger.

“Even if Thorin marries you and makes you Queen, I won't kiss your toes and go easy on you, wee laddie. You'll have to do it as all the others have.”

“Fine,” I pointed the stick at him, “But, if you end up on your back, you'll have to kiss my toes.”

Dwalin's great guffawing laughter turned up into the sky and it nearly startled me such was the intensity of it, “And risk a clawing by Fili? I'll pass on that. If it's a wager you want-” Just as he stood to offer me whatever he was, I interjected, “You afraid of Fili? I never would have guessed!”

I chuckled at how his face turned up and he eyed me, torn between pushing me back down to eat dirt and amusement.

“That's the wager. You land on your back and you have to kiss my feet.”

“Aye, alright, and when you lose?”

Eager to begin the duel, I rolled up my sleeves until they were tight around my elbows and got into proper stance, waiting and ready as Dwalin did the same.

“I'll kiss _your_ toes, dirt and all. At least I'll wash mine before you do it for me.”

Dwalin laughed loudly again at the idea of him bending down to kiss my feet, his voice a happy tickle again on my cheek. I ignored it until the sensation disappeared when his voice sighed off; we both were at the ready, our sticks up and waiting for the other to attack since now that we had our wager, neither one of us wanted it to end so soon. Ending it so soon meant little fun in general for Dwalin and a quick foot kissing for me. 

In my own mind, no matter the outcome of this, I would have Dwalin on his back even if I had to fight dirty to do so. I was already tested as a dirty fighter from our battle that night with Azog and again when Dwalin, Fili and I all sparred. 

Where I was sure that being known as a dirty fighter must have been some slight with a dwarf, I felt indifferent to it. I had to be since I was known for it among my cousins. Fighting between your cousins when you were younger had a feeling of survival to it whereas this, this was just play.

I waited for my moment, my stick feeling as if it were my sword that stung so sharply into the breast of the orc. I needed it to be like an extension of me as it were to Thorin when he wielded the actual weapon. It didn't matter that he hadn't ever so much as touched it before for Thorin to make it seem as if it were his own. I would need to do the same if only for a short while. 

Enough for Dwalin to find himself on his back too.

Instincts were what defended against Dwalin's first attack, him taking advantage of the faraway look in my eyes that he most likely saw. I wasn't even really aware that I did it before I realized that I knocked his stick off balance and stepped forward so that I could get in my own attack, which he evaded when he took a giant step back. With Dwalin it was always a double sided sword to attack or defend with him; if one were to defend, it opened them up for his powerful strikes that could shove one off balance but if one tried to attack, he could evade so easily with his large gait in any direction.

He took larger steps than Thorin but by no means was it like Fili's, which could be used against him. He had grown used to his larger steps and it was his advantage.

I had no choice but to evade the next attack but I remembered how many steps I counted in my attempt to evade his stick and knew that he would attempt to throw me to the ground. I blocked the attempt, letting him come at me and push me back though his face turned into one of surprise when he noticed that I didn't fall. My toes dug into the dirt, kicking up dust but I guarded against the push by swallowing it whole, my shoulder aching from how strong Dwalin was.

When I went to strike out, he went easily from my range with a grin on his face, “Ah, so you _are_ learning, laddie.”

I didn't comment on the jest and went back into stance this time taking the offensive and attacking, clumsy as ever but at least not enough that Dwalin had to growl out corrections for me. It seemed that after eating so much dirt and dust, the aches in my body knew where to keep my limbs so that they didn't hurt as much.

Again we danced back and forth, neither of us getting any ground on the other but I knew that had more to do with Dwalin controlling the fight rather than I. He was the tried and tested warrior and if he wanted me down, he only had to do so. This was still training though and he wanted me to learn from it and grow confident with what I could; his speed was probably half as good as it could have been, his hits half as strong, his moves only as effective as he wanted them to be. He wanted the fight to go on as long as it could all the while making sure that I was tested. 

All in all, his method was very different from Thorin's because where the King-In-Exile wanted to teach and nurture his student with skills that they felt confident with in practice, Dwalin was a much more practical approach. Thorin taught in concept and in practical application whereas Dwalin taught completely in one. I would learn how to defend myself by defending myself. 

Thorin could teach me how to see it and Dwalin would teach me how to live it.

Nevertheless, for all my revelations, it didn't change that Dwalin was much more skilled than I and matched to me only because he wished to be. When he saw that I moved faster, my stick sharper than before, he upped his own skill and matched it. As he saw that my footwork got more precise and I easily moved back and forth with barely a thought, he saw fit to move us around all the more.

Dwalin was such an excellent and fun teacher that I barely realized what he was doing until it was upon me, the utter sense of exhaustion. It took a well timed parry of his to deflect my attack at the last moment and I – in my haste to scurry away- noticed that my legs felt more tired than they had earlier when we first started. 

I was exhausted. 

He noticed immediately my sloppy footwork, his eyes fixing onto my feet before he gave a snort that poked lightly at my cheek, “Tired, laddie?”

I was but I wouldn't say anything of that. “No, just making sure you're watching.”

He chuckled at that and went to strike at me, I barely deflecting it before he was twisting around his stick and catching me on my other side; I couldn't parry it since I was hardly expecting him to change styles but in my haste to get away, I fumbled my footwork and skidded down onto my thigh, the cloth from my skirt straining without ripping. 

Even as I saw Dwalin turn to try and finish me off, I remembered my promise to have him on his back and I let my hobbit instincts take over, demanding just as they had when I faced my cousins that one could never go down without taking them with me. My hands snapped out to grab onto Dwalin's belt before he could turn around and with a great yank, the bulky form of the older dwarf was being hauled over just because he never learned to stay off the soles of his feet.

From the angle of his fall and the angle that I was at when I tugged him back, I couldn't avoid the heavy weight of his body as he fell back and landed on my arm. He landed with his back in the dirt and crushing my arm just as we both heard the sound of a soft clapping off to the side of our training grounds. 

Both of us looked over just in time to see Thorin come over, an amused look on his face though there was still something to be said of the fact that he rolled his eyes upon the sight of us.

“Now that is an unusual sight.” His voice was a wonderful curl of pleasure against my legs, sensation lapping at the skin there before it disappeared. Thorin offered a hand as Dwalin rolled off to the side so that I could get up and I gratefully accepted since I was sore and sure to bruise by morning.

“I've been watching you both since you went off; can't say I wasn't amused,” Thorin's eyes spoke of his amusement and he smiled at Dwalin as the dwarf cracked his back, “Can't say it wasn't a pleasure to see her send you on your back, friend. My own hurts just thinking about all the times you upended me on the stones of Erebor.”

Before Dwalin or I could make certain of why Thorin interrupted us, he motioned back over to the house, “Best to get some food before the others eat all of it," As Dwalin passed us, he turned to me, "You should wash up afterwards too.”

He sounded amused as he took in my shabby state, my clothes dusted with dirt and my hair a mess of tangles and sweat that still clung to my skin. At the same time, Dwalin looked to be in no better condition considering all that he wore and the three of us took off towards the house for some much needed nourishment. On our way back though, I made sure that Dwalin caught my smirk, a reminder that while I owed him a kiss to his feet, he owed me as well.

Inside the hall, the others were eating just as Thorin said they were and I ravenous from the harsh training eagerly climbed my way onto the nearby bench and dug in to whatever dish was nearest. Carrot soup, apple crisps, and various kinds of lettuces and vegetables all went down my throat as easily as the next, my hunger so great that I felt so unlike a hobbit and more like a dwarf who could just wolf down food without hardly a care.

I noticed that as I dug into my food that Gandalf directed a smile at me, his eyes glinting in amusement before turning to his own food.

As I ate, I listened to the tale that Gandalf told the others of how he went in search of Beorn, finding nothing of the man or bear himself but making due with the many available tracks from him and his kind. There were many tracks apparently, all in the various sizes from very large to very small, and he followed them all the way back to the Carrock where they disappeared further up where we crossed the Ford.

He assumed from there that they must have ventured further into the mountains but as he couldn't be sure, he came back here with a lazy sort of haste.

As he told his story, I found my own thoughts remembering my night when I came to the dining hall and spoke with Beorn through the doorway. There were other bears outside, he warned and he did mention that they were leaving, though not the destination that he had in mind. He mentioned that he would be back tomorrow but other than that, there was nothing to offer to the company that was useful. 

I thought too of the whispers that woke me that night and how Beorn called them an ill omen, grateful that since the night, I hadn't heard anything.

After dinner and talking with the others and watching Gandalf blow smoke rings until even I was bored of the sight, I popped out and grabbed the washing basin from the room that I shared with Thorin. I brought along a washing cloth and a drying sheet for afterwards and went out to the well that I saw the animals at when I first arrived at Beorn's. 

I was more filthy and smelly than I ever remembered being in my life and I was glad to wash the grime off my body despite the fact that the water that I pulled from the well was freezing cold. Mud came from my hair such was how full of dust and dirt it was and I was surprised to find that after scrubbing the grime off that I had actually tanned a bit. I washed all my parts until I felt clean again, bending over to wash my clothes as best I could and squeezed all the water from them before setting them aside on a rack. 

I missed the hot bath I had back in Bag End and I missed my washing tubs for when I would need to clean my clothing. The comforts of home were so wanted that I ended up ridding myself of the feeling by dumping basin after basin of cold water down my back until I felt as if I would die from the iciness in my bones. 

When I was finished and just sitting there in a wet heap of a hobbit, I was exhausted and my body ached something terribly.

I smiled because it felt nice. It felt like adventure. 

When I was finished with my bath and ready to head back inside, I got up and wrapped myself in a drying sheet, happy to be covered and warm again in the cooling air of the night. So that I wouldn't need to worry about the dwarves seeing me in just a drying sheet, I held onto my clothes as best I could while I slipped on the magic ring and toed back into the dining hall. I didn't need to look at them to know that they were partying and drinking more of Beorn's ale but I wasn't much in the mood to join them even if I did have a pair of clothes to change into.

Silently I crept back into the room I shared with Thorin, pulling off the ring and setting it back into the pocket of my wet vest; languidly, I set all my clothes up to dry in the room, hung over the backs of chairs and their armrests, wishing that I could at least sleep in my chemise shift since I liked to feel the fabric against my skin as I slept.

The bed called to me, my eyes feeling heavy as I went over to the large bed and fell into it. The furs felt amazing against my skin and I smiled as the desire for sleep washed over me so strongly that I didn't dare try to deny it. I wriggled around in bed just happy to feel how comfortable I was and burrowed under the blankets and furs until I realized that I was seconds away from sleep.

I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of the door opening, a faint light visible even though I saw that all the candles in the room had long burnt out. I knew who it was and snuggled back down into the furs as Thorin came into the room, setting his candle down on the side table before he undressed and folded everything on a nearby chair. A moment later the candle was blown out with a puff of air and the blankets were being lifted so that he could slip in beside me. As he curled up around my back and pulled me closer, I felt that he was just as naked as I.

I smiled into the sensation of his breathing against the back of my neck, the way his skin warmed my own, and how we fell asleep cuddled so close that even our legs were tangled.


	47. Preparations for a Summer Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's something brewing at Beorn's home and the company has to help the skin-changer prepare for it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to say hello! ^^
> 
> Also, I meant to post this yesterday but I ended up sleeping past the time when my internet shuts off.

“AH!” I startled awake at the sound of loud pounding at the door, shocked even that Thorin went for his knife and shot awake. Both of us looked as if we were about to be attacked, our eyes fixed on the door that rumbled underneath the loud knocks.

“Hobbit! Wake up, I'll need your help today!”

Equal parts relief and irritation flooded my exhausted and sore limbs and I groaned at the sound of Beorn's voice booming loudly in my ears and in the center of my chest. I spared Thorin a glance as I scrubbed my face with my hands, seeing that he himself looked as if his heart were about to rattle right out of his chest. 

“Augh, why can't people wake up normally on adventures?”

It would have been nice to have been woken up like a normal person but alas, we were still at Beorn's house and now with our host back and seemingly in a fantastic mood, I wouldn't be able to wake like a normal proper guest. 

I collapsed back down against the furs even as Thorin climbed out of bed, grumbling and sounding just as irritated as I felt for having been woken so suddenly. My eyes followed the slow trail of Thorin as he went over to the washing basin, splashing water on his face to try and rush the shock of Beorn's wake up call away. I got up myself and went over to where my clothes were, noticing that Thorin's various belts and vambraces were scattered on the seat and some of my clothes dislodged from their spots.

When I bent to pick up my bloomers, I frowned at the fact that it was still wet since sometime in the night it had fallen to the floor in a heap. I sighed loudly and felt my shift and was at least happy to feel that that was dry. After I slung that over my head, I cursed over the fact that my shirt had met the same fate as my bloomers. 

This time my malcontent did not go unnoticed. Thorin shot me a glance as he started to dress, “What's wrong?”

“Some of my clothes fell off the chair and didn't dry.”

“Anything important?”

The voice that asked me curled along my back with a tinge of concern that made me smile lightly, “My shirt, actually. My knickers I could learn to go without.” I slipped into my petticoat and tied it tightly around my waist before I double checked to make sure that my skirt wasn't damp as well. “Give me a moment then.”

I turned my head just in time to catch Thorin holding up his navy tunic in reference to how much larger it would be on me should he give it up; it made me think of Thorin's previous question about if the layer that I lost were important since the dwarves themselves all wore numerous layers. My thoughts pondered away when I saw Thorin shrug his tunic over his head and leave the room, returning a few minutes later with a rolled up bundle in his hands that he tossed to me. 

As soon as I caught it, I realized that it was a shirt and holding it out for inspection, I immediately noticed that it smelled of the brothers though because they smelled alike, I wasn't sure which one it belonged to. It looked somewhat closer to my size than Thorin's tunic and I took the gesture for what it was meant and ended up pulling the tunic over my head. 

It was a tan color and tied at the top with a thicker set of leather ties. To help with the sizing issue, I tucked it into my skirt as I did with my own shirt though there was nothing I could do about how it still seemed to billow. Unfortunately, my suspenders were still drying so I couldn't don those to help contain the shirt.

“Is this Fili's?” I asked out of curiosity as I fingered the fabric, wondering over the size and how it was of similar taste to the rest of his outfit.

“Aye, he wears that one under his colored tunic,” Thorin explained as he sat on the edge of the bed and started to lace up his boots, a small grin spread across his cheeks, “Refused clothing his entire childhood – couldn't keep him from being naked – and yet as soon as he reached adulthood, he wouldn't leave the house without at least two shirts on.”

I giggled at the idea of Fili's childhood and the apparently vast amount of times that he would run around as naked as the day he was born. Even after I rolled up my sleeves, Thorin still grinned at the memories until he eventually chuckled. 

“Was it so funny?” I asked him as I wandered over, happy to see that Thorin was in a good mood despite how we both woke up.

“It is when I can recall the shape of that boy's scrawny naked ass better than my own grandfather's face.”

He chuckled again at his own memories and I couldn't help but share the sentiment along with him as well. I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss before waiting for him to finish dressing.

As soon as he was finished, we both left the room and made our way over to the main dining hall where as soon as I stepped past the threshold, I was spotted by the sharp eyes of Beorn.

“I wondered if you had been eaten up by something wicked since you were taking so long!”

Beorn was in a strangely jolly mood compared to the last time he was with us. By no means was he not a gracious host the last time I saw him but he had been begrudging and now... That wasn't the case anymore, I noticed. 

As quick as he was tall, he bounded over to hover over Thorin and I. I barely had a chance to yelp in surprise before I felt his powerful hands at my waist lifting me high into the air. As undignified as it was, I actually heard myself squawk in fright as the ground whirled away from me, my distaste of heights coming fresh now that I was lifted by a mountain of a man. 

My fingers clutched onto Beorn's robe, wringing hand fulls of the wine colored fabric as the man threw me over his shoulder. The entire time he was laughing at the spectacle I made with my sputtering and indignation, his voice bouncing off the walls as he stepped around the dwarves. Breakfast was in full swing around us and Dwalin looked torn between dumbfounded rage and pity at the sight of Beorn hauling me around so carelessly. At the same time when I looked down for some help from Thorin, I saw that the dwarf was bristling from undisguised jealousy at our host. 

Courtesy stayed his tongue but from the way his hand clenched, he wanted nothing more than to stab a knife into the giant of a man's leg.

“Ah, my friend, could you pass us a few plates, if you please?”

Gandalf's voice stuck out to me in the busy rush of noises and happenings from down below; I felt Beorn answer the request with a casual nod, sweeping around the dwarves so that he could reach high into one of his many cupboards on the other side of the table. I tried to steady myself to no avail as he bounded across the room, suddenly realizing that as I clutched onto his robe that I was sliding forward down his back and was moments away from being dropped!

“Ah-HA! Watch yourself there now!” I grumbled in protest at the fact that Beorn actually thought he could laugh at the situation that I was in because of him. “Put me down!” 

I nearly kneed him in the face before I felt myself about to fall again, this time stopped by the fact that he actually had to grab hold of me. “Oi!” I was tired of this undignified morning already and I squirmed from my place over the man's shoulder, just wanting to be put down back on either the ground or the bench.

My thoughts were interrupted by the feel of too familiar fingers!

I squeaked in protest at the fact that my butt had actually been pinched and that it was obviously Beorn's doing since I was still slung over his shoulder! He was actually pinching me! It drew the attention of the other dwarves and especially the brothers when they stepped into the dining hall. I shouted to be put down and was rewarded only with the laughter of the woodsman. His voice was a booming rumble in my chest and the way it thundered, I knew that he was happy beyond all words. “I knew you looked a little bigger! Little bunny is getting nice and fat again on the bounty of my harvest!” 

He treated me as if I were a doll, lifting me away from his shoulder to set me in the seat that I occupied the last time we all ate together. As he set me down, he poked at my stomach playfully before taking his normal seat on the end of the table. 

“We'll eat but we must make haste. We have plenty to do today!”

Even though I was still upset by being so manhandled and the glowering looks that Fili and Thorin still shared between Beorn and I, I went for the various dishes that were assembled in front of us. I was hungry and Beorn's words did not exactly fill me with any thrilling confidence. Thorin's look in my direction also forced me into asserting that no matter the familiarity with which the bear spoke of his plans, I still had no idea what was going on.

As we ate breakfast, I was unable to dismiss the fact that more so than just his rather familiar treatment of me, Beorn truly had been in a joyous mood. He ate loudly, slurped his ale happily and spoke with fervent interest to the rest of the company. While the dwarves of Thorin's company were not the dimmest candles, they certainly weren't the brightest either but even they understood the change in Beorn's mood.

Surprisingly, it was Ori who plucked up enough courage to even ask the skin-changer why his mood was so much better. 

Briefly I thought of Gandalf's tale from the night before and how he followed the pack of bears back to the Carrock and it seemed that my thoughts were correct in their thinking; Beorn told us in that big voice of his that rumbled in my chest that the very night we came, the bears of his clan came together and he told them of the tale that Gandalf told him to allow us to stay at his home. Curious as they were (for the tale really did sound too exciting to be true), the group went beyond the Carrock and back into the mountains where they themselves saw the clearing with the felled trees and signs of battle. 

Orc and warg corpses still littered the area and after throwing the bodies off the cliff side, they were fortunate enough to encounter a stray goblin who was curious himself. They managed to chase him down after leading him around in circles for nearly three hours, for apparently bears love such sport. Once they decided that they had enough fun and caught him, he told the clan of how the Great Goblin had been killed by a rogue company of dwarves and how he had slipped off to check out the site of the skirmish between the dwarves and orcs.. 

When asked why he was so curious, the goblin told them hurriedly of the plans to raid the nearby area since they were sure that the dwarves could not have gone too far. They would find them and punish whomever was sheltering them. 

At this part in the story, the dwarves were fixated on the skin-changer and what he had been up to. They hung on his every word, a sense of awe coming over the younger dwarves' faces as they listened. I stared at the man himself, noting that when he went into detail about how his clan could hardly let the goblin go since it was his and his own that the creature was inadvertently talking about.

Though Beorn was firmly in his form of a man, his face warped to something else entirely. As he told the dwarves what he did to the goblin who so insulted him, his smirk became wild and his eyes ferocious. When he drank from his tankard, he did so greedily and upon finishing his morbid descriptions and even how there was now a goblin head outside to ward off any strangers, still that wild look did not leave his face.

All the dwarves except Thorin looked at the skin-changer as if he were once again their hero. Already he had impressed with the tale of the shat sack and now his viciousness with their common enemy only made him more of one.

Unfortunately for them but fortunate for me, Beorn did not have anymore time to waste with telling them stories of his cruelty towards the goblins of the mountains. As soon as he finished telling the tale, he shoved a few more pieces of food in his mouth before he stood from the table and went to the cupboards all around the dining hall. 

I watched him curiously -my food quite forgotten – as he pulled out a great deal of plates and bowls, setting them aside on the far end of the table. He called in his animal helpers, great horses and skinny dogs that took whatever he set down and hauled it off to the other side of the house.

“Little bunny, are you finished?”

I startled at the irritating nickname that Beorn now called me and looked at him as if he were crazed. Even though I remembered what he said about needing to make haste, I still had no idea what it was for. 

“I guess?”

The looks that Thorin and Fili were giving the skin-changer definitely were not the happiest but they deigned to whisper their displeasures to one another rather than growl in Beorn's direction.

“Come along then, bunny!” He bound out the room through the open doorway only to reappear a moment later, “Oh! We'll need help too; my friends saw you with a dwarf yesterday, which one was it?”

Without thinking I pointed to Ori and gasped when the giant of a man reached over and grabbed the young dwarf right out of his seat! Even as I heard the dwarf make the most undignified of sounds in his own attempts to free himself from the skin-changer, I made haste and followed along after him.

I followed along after the pair, my eyes unable to look away from how red Ori was from being so mistreated. 

Eventually I realized that Beorn was leading us over to his gardens where he put down Ori and grabbed up two baskets and handed them to us. “I need us to pick flowers.”

“Uh, f-flowers, Master Beorn?” Ori stuttered, his voice a nervous fluttering of kittens and softness across my palms. He took the basket eagerly though and looked around at the garden as if it were an endless delight in the making. I myself just stood there unable to figure out why exactly Beorn wanted us to do something as simple as picking flowers.

“Tomorrow, they need to be everywhere.” He motioned happily around at the entirety of his house, “On the animals, around the house. Everywhere! I'm having my friends set up vases and cups and bowls for bouquets. I also need to make crowns.”

“Crowns?” I asked, already going over next to Ori, who was already at work picking flowers gently from their places. “Yes! Crowns! We all need to have one for tomorrow.”

“What is tomorrow?”

“You're actually going to celebrate it?!” I startled at the excitement in Ori's voice, nearly dropping my basket from how loud he was. In another row already filling his own basket, Beorn beamed at the small dwarf, “I am!”

“And it will be amazing, just let me say now!”

I looked back and forth between the two of them, unable to figure out the knowledge they knew between them. I was so shocked that the two of them actually had something in common that I didn't even realize that Ori was poking me until he nearly pushed me. “Miss Bilbo?”

“Ori?”

“You should get to picking. We really do need to make haste.”

Even though I still had no idea what I needed to “make haste” about, I nonetheless filled my basket with flowers until they nearly kept falling from the sides. I saw that Beorn was already at work bundling up some for the vases that he said would be in the house. He arranged all the flowers prettily together in bundles and tied them together with string, setting them off to the side where he then picked up another batch and did the same.

Ori and I sat with him while he did this, all of us taking turns cutting away pieces of string and using it to keep the bundles together that we made. When Beorn was finished with his basket, he went to go and pick more flowers and when he returned, I saw that they were a different batch from the last. He was not at all caring about which flower went with which only that we found it pretty to look at. I admit that as feminine as I was, I didn't have much of an eye for arrangement as Ori did, who hummed to himself as he bundled brightly colored daisies with red roses.

When all of us had made at least two basket's worth of bouquets each, Beorn collected all of them with the help of his animal friends and carried them all inside. Figuring that he was going to be put them in their respective places, Ori and I went again to the gardens and picked more flowers so that we could either make more bouquets or flower crowns for the animals.

I was in the middle of a daisy crown when Beorn came back up to us in the garden and squatted down in the dirt near me. “Hold up your arms, little bunny.”

I frowned in distaste for his nickname but did as I was told, staring at the man strangely as he pulled out a long measuring tape and held it up against my arms. He didn't say anything after that other than to ask me to lift an arm up higher or turn slightly but after that, he was up and leaving us again with me wondering just what he was planning. Was he going to make me something to wear?

I shrugged it off and went back to my flower crown.

Some time later, Ori and I were interrupted by the sight of Bifur practically running up to us, his hands a mad flurry of gestures. Ori understood at the very least what he was trying to say, his voice tickling underneath my arms until I begged him to stop talking. We were to go with him back to the main house for a little while as Beorn needed extra helpers and to see me.

What we found in the main hall where Beorn himself normally stayed was a mess of adventure in its own right. Beorn was going to and fro while Dori and Dwalin offered ingredients to the skin-changer when he asked for them. When he wasn't asking for ingredients, they were being asked to stir mixtures in pots and bowls. As soon as Beorn saw us, he whisked Ori off to help Dori with cooking and pulled me off to the side where he had stashed a few piles of fabric.

As he went through the piles, tossing one aside for another, I saw that it wasn't a giant pile of fabric but actually a pile of robes that looked to be made of fine silk. One after another, he would hold up a robe against me and toss it in one pile or the other. A yellow one, tossed to the right pile, a red wine colored one, tossed to the left. A sharp blue the color of rivers held up against my body and then tossed to the left pile.

“Ah! You're just in time! I need your help with this!”

I was startled by how loudly he called out to whomever just entered the main hall, and turning around, I was surprised to see Thorin looking confused and irritated on the heels of Bombur. 

“What can we help with?”

“I was told that you two can cook! Come over!”

Beorn threw the last robe on the pile and took them into his arms before he strolled off towards the hallway, where I finally noticed sat Nori and Bofur at the far end of the main table. They were surrounded by a pile of flowers, all different types and colors that they were working together gently into crowns that seemed to be fit for the dogs to wear given their size. Beorn stopped briefly to compliment them before he disappeared down the hallway.

At the same time, Dori was instructing what Bombur and Thorin what to do since he was obviously in charge of the cooking arrangements should Beorn suddenly decide to venture off. Before I could figure out if I should help with the cooking or go back to making flower bouquets and crowns, Beorn was back in the room with some flowers in hand, pausing again near Nori and Bofur and looking into his pile and holding up one or two against their heads. 

I watched him as he went back over to where the dwarves were currently all cooking and throwing ingredients into pots and Thorin and Dwalin were both being made to wrestle with dough. He stopped behind each of them, waving off their attention when they noticed that he held up flowers to each of their heads. Was he trying to match which flower went best with each dwarf?

I figured that that was what was happening considering that Beorn looked especially pleased after he went through a few flowers against Thorin's dark hair and finally settled on a vivid red one.

Afterwards, he spotted Bifur and I and motioned for us to follow him outside. We did so eagerly on his heels until we were outside underneath the sun. 

He handed me the red flower that he liked for Thorin and so close, I noticed that it was actually a red tiger lily. Its color was so vivid and perfect that I became distracted by it until a daisy and some baby's breath were each put in my hands. 

“I need to alter some clothing and then weave the remainder of the crowns so I'll leave the rest of this up to you two.”

“What are we supposed to do?” I asked, unable to figure out what was expected of me. Beorn just laughed at the question, clapping me on the back roughly, “Oh little bunny, that's cute. Your company are honored guests of mine and these are for the party. Each of these need to be the prominent flower in a flower crown. The wizard is the only other one I haven't figured out yet so be sure to find him and pick a flower that would look good on him.”

After making sure that Bifur and I understood what we needed to do, Beorn left us and Bifur and I went together to go and find more of the specific flowers that Beorn chose for the crown. We also needed to find accent flowers to make the crowns less plain. 

Bifur was very helpful in carrying everything and even though we had stunted conversation due to the fact that our hands would be busy as that was our only means of communication, somehow or other, we still managed to have a good laugh.

Hours later and long after I felt my hands go numb from careful placement, tying of string, and even more careful placement of more flowers (stopping to make sure that whatever I made looked good on Bifur's own head), we both had three crowns set out for the group. I trusted that Beorn did as he said he did in making the others but he did ask for us to make Gandalf's. 

I went around the entire compound in search of the grey wizard, ducking into the main kitchen where I saw the dwarves all still busy cooking while Beorn sat off in a corner sewing and Nori and Bofur still were busy at work making plain flower crowns for the animals. Balin had joined them but was only making bouquets that once finished, he set off to the side for Ori to take.

I went to the main guest hall but even there I did not find Gandalf.

It was near the stables that I discovered the wizard but I immediately saw that he wasn't alone; he seemed engrossed in conversation with Fili and Kili, both of them looking intensely at the wizard as they spoke and listened to whatever was being said. 

As I approached, I strained my ears to try and catch a hint of what they were talking about.

“So what? Like twenty more years?” Kili looked peevish at that, his voice a soft whispered pinch that overlapped with Gandalf's steady pressure on my shoulder, “As I said, young Kili, it's about that though with an obvious amount of give or take. It'll depend on her health.”

My face frowned in confusion because I wasn't sure what they were talking about but I knew that I desperately wanted to know. Whatever they were talking about sounded interesting from what little I heard and the way it caught the brothers' attention, I wanted to know more. I crept up closer to the three of them and was just about to interrupt to ask what they were going on about when my voice died in my throat. 

Fili was crying.

He was doing so silently, his face a blank mask of emotion, but even as he listened to Gandalf go on about whatever it was, he didn't even bother to hide the fact that tears fell down his cheeks. Every so often he would try and wipe away the tears but he didn't say anything in regards to the conversation.

Whatever the topic, it was serious.

I startled at the feel of a hand on my shoulder, turning to see Bifur come up behind me, a flower in his hand. He pointed to the wizard and then to the flower and I put two and two together and nodded, allowing myself to be led off again by the older dwarf. 

When I turned back to look at the brothers, Fili's face was buried in his hands in another vain attempt to smother his tears away.

By the time supper was upon the company, the brothers were back to their normal selves though at times Fili still looked a little gloomy. Thorin and the other dwarves who were designated to the baking/cooking unit looked exhausted as they tiredly dug into their food, all of them in varying levels of dishevelment. I had to admit though that it was amusing seeing Dwalin and Thorin covered in flour and Nori and Bofur stop their eating to flex their hands with discomfort written so clearly across their faces.

Ori chattered on to his brothers about something excitedly while Oin struggled not to fall asleep in his bowl. He, Gloin, and I all had the task set of decorating the house as best we could with the flower bouquets that were available while Beorn was still busy sewing and then set up with his own flower crowns. Even now as we ate, Beorn had a half finished crown set off to the side of the table, safe out of harm's way, his eyes darting back over to it like he wanted nothing more than to finish it.

I smirked at the idea that he was the type of person who hated leaving tasks half finished.

After dinner, all of us retreated back to our quarters and bunk beds. I was so exhausted that I ended up just plopping down into bed, lazily undressing until I was down to my shift while in the background Thorin cleaned the flour from his person.

When he finally slipped into bed, there was a moment where we both didn't know whether or not to try and instigate anything intimate...

A moment later, we both groaned and rolled over to sleep. We didn't want to repeat the first time we slept together, barely able to do anything but pass out on each other. 

We both just wanted sleep.

It was the middle of the night though when all of us were woken, a quiet knocking on everyone's door that eventually had us all gathered around sleepily in the dining hall. There wasn't food on the table nor was there a peep to show that anyone was afoot other than Beorn himself, who apparently was the first to wake Gandalf and then have him wake the others.

Offering us no explanation at all as to why we were woken so early in the morning that not even the blue of the false dawn was upon us, Beorn led us out in a giant group while some of his animals followed. We were as quiet as we could be considering that it was early morning and the darkness around us made the dwarves all the more cautious as to why we were leaving the house.

Even as sleepy and ready to fall asleep as I felt while I walked, I noticed that none of the dwarves were fully dressed or even armed with any of their weapons save for probably their smallest, most concealed of knives. The others looked just as tired as I was as they wandered on along after Beorn and his animals, tripping over tree roots and slippery grass covered in morning dew.

Thorin stayed close to my side, his eyes watching the darkness of the woods as we walked on. On my other side, Fili and Kili seemed only to be able to move forward, their eyes closing as they walked because of how eager they were to go back to bed. We seemed to walk forever until Beorn stopped us in a clearing that rested just outside of the forest line. 

By that time the false dawn was painted in soft blue waves across the sky and some of our company looked around at the other in the hopes that someone knew why we were there.

We waited in silence. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh scent of the moisture in the air and the chill against my feet. Beorn himself seemed lost in the glory of the early morning, his eyes looking out to a point beyond the horizon.

“Beorn, perhaps you might tell the rest why we're out here?” Upon's Gandalf's gentle prodding, soft whisperings of a sensation on my shoulder, Beorn fixed his eyes on the rest of the group and smiled at us, “Ah! I had forgotten!” His voice rumbled in my chest but he was joyful, “Tomorrow night the moon will be full and with the summer winds upon us, the summer festival can be celebrated. The festival was what I had the little bunny and her friends helping with yesterday.”

“We assumed that such a thing was only celebrated with your own kind?” Thorin questioned, his curiosity piqued by Beorn's mention of a festival, remembering that Gandalf spoke of bears around the house the night before last.

“The bears come to pay respects but they never bother with it anymore; with you here, I can actually properly celebrate.” Beorn waved off the notion of what Thorin said and sat down in the grass, the animals that followed us out to the glade coming around him.

“So why are we here now if the festival is tomorrow?”

Beorn laughed at that, “No, tiny King, the festival starts at dawn. My ancestors used to think that if a person were to watch the sun rise on the day of the festival, it would grant them its protection for the rest of the year.” His blue eyes turned back to look upon the rest of our group, his teeth shining brightly from within the coarse nest of his beard, “Given the quest you have ahead of you, I'd suggest you get comfortable.”

The dwarves took Beorn's words to heart, each of them finding a place along the edge of the forest to sit and wait for the oncoming sunrise that was still some time off. Gandalf sat next to Beorn, his pipe already being tended to so that he could smoke. Ori and his brothers sat in a circle and whispered while Dwalin and Balin settled against some tree, languidly watching the sky. Bifur and his cousins were playing hand games and Thorin was leaned back against a great tree trunk, his arms crossed while his gaze fixated on the distant point of the sky.

It was chilly and with no better place, I went to Thorin's side and snuggled against his side, smiling when his hand came around and pulled me closer; not wanting to be off on their own, Fili and Kili approached and nestled down in their own way around their Uncle. Fili ended up with his head leaned into my hair as a cushion while Kili turned so that he could rest his head in Thorin's lap. His expression was one giant pout and he seemed to want nothing of this morning adventure, his eyes shut and using his jacket to blanket himself.

He was asleep within minutes and his brother only managed to stay awake a little longer before his hand became dead weight in my lap and I heard his soft snores in my hair.

The rest of us waited and watched until Bofur eventually got up to play a game with Ori and his brothers that woke Kili briefly with their ruckus shouts. Thorin combed his fingers through the younger dwarf's brunette locks until the dwarf went back to sleep, his blue eyes still trained to the horizon that was now an undulating mass of pink and oranges.

When the sun finally rose above the mountains in the distance, bright rays of soft gold, fiery red, and wisps of the ever present pink, I spared a glance at the rest of the company and saw that the others all looked at the rising sun in fascination. 

No doubt this was hardly the first time they saw a sunrise but this one was as Beorn said, special to him in that it served a purpose.

It may not have been to us as it was for Beorn but It was beautiful.

The dead weight of Fili above me and the sight of Kili still sleeping made me roll my eyes at the thought of them not being able to see this but I figured that Thorin could appreciate its beauty. When I looked to the leader of our company though, I expected to see his eyes focused on the colors of the sunrise – no doubt thinking of Erebor- but instead, I was surprised to find that he too had fallen asleep.

I smiled and shook my head for the thought of how alike he and his nephews were. It was a shame though... the sunrise really was quite extraordinary.

**Author's Note:**

> Any suggestions or reviews, leave them in the comments below! :D


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